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NA .  fLArl  LbJ. 


.REESE  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


SB^Sfr.' 


«•«» 


. 

, 
LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON 


THE  LIFE  OF 


NATHANIEL  MACON 


BY 


WILLIAM  E.  DODD,  PH.D., 

Professor  of  History  in   Randolph-Macon  College. 


RALEIOH,  N.  C. 

Edwards  &  Broughton,  Printers  and  Binders. 
1908. 


REESE 


TO  MY  WIFE,  MATTIE  JOHNS  DODD, 

whose  encouragement  and  practical  assistance 

have  so  much  aided  in  the  completion 

of   my  undertaking, 
THIS   BOOK   IS  AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED. 


192758 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter.  Page. 

I.  The  Macon  Family, T 

II.  At  College, 7 

III.  North  Carolina  During  the  Revolution,  13 

IV.  In  the  Army  Again. 23 

V.  In  the  General  Assembly,  1781-1785,  .  31 

VI.  Founding  a  Home,  1782-1891,     ...  41 
VII.  The  Adoption  of  the  National  Consti 
tution,     46 

VIII.  First  Years  in  Congress,  i79i-i?95,      •  5$ 
IX.  Leader  of  the  North  Carolina  Delega 
tion,    79 

X.  Macon  and  the  Federalist  Supremacy, 

1797-1801, 104 

XI.  The  Revolution  of  1800, 156 

XII.  Republican  Supremacy,  1801-1805,      .  168 

XIII.  Macon  and  the  "Quids,"  1805-1808,     .  198 

XIV.  Repeal  of  the  Embargo,  1807-1809,     .  217 
XV.  Macon  a  National  Character,  1809-1812,  242 

XVI.  Revolution  in  Congress  and  the  War 

of  1812, 273 

XVII.  In  the  United  States  Senate,  1815-1828,  291 

XVIII.  In  the  United  States  Senate,  1820-1828,  331 

XIX.  Macon's  Last  Years, 37° 

Appendix         402 

Index 431 

Bibliography xvi 


PREFACE. 


The  raison  d'etre  of  a  biography  of  Nathaniel  Ma- 
con  is  to  be  found  in  the  unique  and  also  important 
role  he  played  in  our  national  life  and  in  the  great 
sectional  contest  which  filled  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  No  comprehensive  life  of  Ma- 
con  has  ever  been  attempted.  A  half  dozen  news 
paper  articles,  and  of  recent  years  a  few  semi-scien 
tific  sketches  of  his  career,  have  been  published ;  and 
some  letters  of  Macon  with  introductions  and  notes 
have  appeared  since  the  writer  began  his  searches  for 
materials.  But  none  of  these  have  given  more  than 
a  glimpse  of  the  able  leader  and  astute  politician  who 
so  long  held  the  first  place  in  the  political  affairs  of 
North  Carolina. 

In  the  midst  of  the  duties  of  a  teacher  of  history, 
the  author  has  tried  to  get  together  the  scanty 
materials  bearing  on  Macon's  life,  and  to  draw  from 
these  a  picture  of  his  rise  to  prominence  in  North 
Carolina  during  and  just  after  the  Revolution,  of  his 
activity  as  an  ardent  Jefferson  republican,  which 
brought  him  to  the  Speakership  of  Congress,  of  his 
long  and  determined  opposition  to  Clay's  American 
system,  and  finally  of  his  share  in  the  Jackson  cam 
paigns.  How  well  this  self-imposed  task  has  been 
done,  how  accurately  the  picture  of  the  real  Macon 
has  been  drawn,  is  for  the  reader  to  determine.  But 
one  thing  at  least  may  be  said  of  the  work:  it  has 
been  attempted,  and  with  the  attempt  some  of  the 
materials  of  North  Carolina's  history  have  been  col 
lected  and  put  within  the  reach  of  the  public.  In 
drawing  the  outlines  of  Macon's  life  a  cursory 
review  of  the  historv  of  North  Carolina  has  also  been 


XIV  PREPACK. 

made,  which  will  scarce  be  taken  amiss  by  those 
who  appreciate  the  present  state  of  history  writing 
in  this  section  of  the  country. 

Foremost  among  those  who  have  lent  valuable 
assistance  in  the  collecting  of  the  data  for  this  work 
are  Judge  A.  B.  Hagner,  of  Washington,  D.  C. ; 
Mrs.  Walter  K.  Martin,  of  Richmond,  Virginia ;  and 
Prof.  Kemp  P.  Battle,  of  Chapel  Hill,  North  Caro 
lina,  all  of  whom  gave  free  access  to  collections  of 
Macon  letters  in  their  possession.  Mr.  S.  M.  Ham 
ilton,  of  Washington,  was  particularly  courteous  in 
making  the  collections  of  the  Department  of  State 
so  freely  accessible.  Senator  Lodge,  Henry  Adams 
and  Prof.  J.  F.  Jameson  took  the  trouble  to  put  me 
in  communication  with  persons  who  owned  Macon 
letters  and  other  data. 

Josephus  Daniels,  Esq.,  of  Raleigh,  North  Caro 
lina,  has  manifested  the  greatest  interest  in  the  work 
from  the  beginning,  and  has  given  invaluable  aid  on 
several  occasions.  Capt.  M.  O.  Sherrill,  the  effi 
cient  State  Librarian  of  North  Carolina,  has  at  all 
times  taken  particular  pains  to  render  my  use  of  the 
sources  of  information  under  his  charge  as  easy 
and  rapid  as  possible.  Justices  Walter  A.  Montgom 
ery,  Walter  Clark  and  Charles  A.  Cook,  of  the 
North  Carolina  Supreme  Court;  Gen.  Matthew  W. 
Ransom,  of  Garysburg;  Col.  H.  C.  Eccles,  of  Char 
lotte;  Hon.  Thomas  M.  Pittman  and  Col.  Fran 
cis  A.  Macon,  of  Henderson,  and  Samuel  L.  Adams, 
Esq.,  of  Elon  College,  North  Carolina,  have  all  lent 
generous  assistance  to  my  undertaking.  Dr.  Ulrich 
B.  Phillips,  of  Wisconsin  University,  very  kindly 
lent  assistance  in  collecting  Macon  letters.  To  all  of 
these,  and  many  others  who  have  given  similar 
assistance,  the  author  takes  this  means  of  expressing 
his  hearty  thanks. 


PREFACE.  XV 

My  colleagues,  Doctors  E.  W.  Bowen  and  A.  C. 
Wightman,  and  also  Hon.  H.  G.  Connor,  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina, 
have  very  kindly  assisted  in  the  tedious  work  of 
proof-reading,  though  they  are  in  no  way  to  be  held 
responsible  for  errors  and  imperfections  which  the 
book  doubtless  contains.  For  this  generous  aid  at 
a  very  trying  season,  the  author  desires  here  to 
express  his  hearty  appreciation. 

W.  E.  D. 

RANDOLPH-MACON  COLLEGE,  VA.,  August  i,  1903. 


NOTE  :  The  recent  appearance  of  volume  22  of  the  North 
Carolina  State  Records  brings  to  light  the  journals  of  the 
General  Assembly  for  the  year  1790,  which  were  supposed 
to  have  been  lost.  The  author,  at  least,  was  unable  to  find 
them  in  the  manuscript  archives  of  the  State  Department. 

These  journals  show  that  Macon  returned  to  the  Legisla 
ture  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1790. 
He  was  very  active  and  exerted  great  influence  on  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  body  particularly  when  matters  of  national 
concern  were  under  discussion.  It  is  too  late  now  for  any 
outline  of  this  part  of  his  life  to  be  given.  In  general, 
however,  it  may  be  said  that  his  efforts  during  this  session 
were  not  inconsistent  with  those  of  his  earlier  course  in  the 
Assembly.  Hence  there  is  no  need  of  reconstructing  what 
has  been  written,  or  even  of  changing  more  than  a  single 
statement,  and  it  is  hoped  that  this  explanation  will  satisfy 
those  who  might  otherwise  be  astonished  to  find  no  mention 
of  that  part  of  Macon's  career. 

The  error,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  is  one  which  could 
not  well  be  repaired  as  the  first  part  of  the  book  had 
already  been  printed. — AUTHOR. 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. 


1.  Unpublished  :  The  Macon  Papers  (a  remnant  of 
Macon's   correspondence   with   Jefferson,    Gallatin, 
Jackson    and   others);    The   Joseph    H.    Nicholson 
Papers ;   Yancey — Steele    Correspondence  ;    Warren 
county  records  ;  and  the  Jefferson  and  Monroe  MSS. 
in  State  Department. 

2.  Published     documents     and     correspondence; 
North  Carolina  Colonial  and  State  Records  ;  Annals  of 
Congress  ;  Benton's  Abridgment  of  Debates  in  Con 
gress  ;    North    Carolina    Laws ;    Journals   of    North 
Carolina  Assembly  ;  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
(Ford);  Life  and  correspondence  of   James  Iredell 
(McKee);  Works  of  Washington  (Sparks);  Works 
of  Madison  (Congress  Edition);  The  Leven  Powell 
Correspondence  (Branch    Papers);   Debates   of   the 
North  Carolina  Constitutional  Convention  of  1835  ; 
Life  and  Correspondence  of  Gallatin  (Adams). 

3.  Newspapers  and  Periodicals  :  Raleigh  Register  ; 
Richmond  Enquirer ;    National  Intelligencer;     Ten 
nessee  Democrat ;    The  Nation;  American  Historical 
Review;  Southern  History  Publications;    William  and 
Mary  College  Quarterly;  Annual  Register;  The  Sprunt 
Monographs. 

4.  General    and   special    accounts :    Meade :    Old 
Churches  and  Parishes  ;  Wheeler  :  History  of  North 
Carolina ;  Gotten  :  Life  of  Nathaniel  Macon  ;  Moore: 
History  of  North  Carolina  ;  Fiske  :  Critical  Period 
of   American    History ;    Schouler :   History    of    the 
United  States  ;  Johnson  :  Life  of  Nathaniel  Greene  ; 
Thomas  :  Character  Sketches  ;  Hudson  :  Journalism 
in    the    United   States ;  Schenck  :  North    Carolina, 
1780— '8 1  ;  Hart:  Formation  of  the  Union  ;  Garland: 
Life   of   John    Randolph  ;   Schurz  :  Life    of   Henry 
Clay;     Peele  :     Distinguished     North    Carolinians; 
Channing  :  History  of  the  United  States. 


LIFE  OF  NATHANIEL  MACON. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  MACON  FAMILY. 

The  Macon  family  originated  in  France,  in  the 
Saone-Loire  country.  A  certain  "J°userand  de  Ma- 
con"  was  knighted  there,  we  are  told,  in  the  year 
1321;  L,ouis  de  Macon  and  Gabriel,  his  son,  bore 
the  title  "de"  and  were  masters  of  considerable 
estates.  But  just  where  they  lived  and  what  their 
connection  with  the  American  Macons  was,  are 
questions  which  can  not  be  answered.  There  was 
a  French  Huguenot  of  some  means  who  settled  at 
Middle  Plantation,  in  Virginia,  in  the  second  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  who  was  a  promi 
nent  tobacco  planter  and  a  vestryman  in  St.  Peter's 
parish,  New  Kent  county,  in  the  year  I68O.1  This 
was  Gideon  Macon,  and  his  estate,  Prospect  Hill,  is 
still  regarded  as  one  of  the  fine  old  landmarks  of 
Eastern  Virginia.  The  second  owner  of  Prospect 
Hill  was  William  Macon,  born  1693,  likewise  a  ves 
tryman  in  the  same  parish  and  colonel  of  the  New 
Kent  militia  about  the  middle  of  the  next  century. 
Martha,  a  sister  of  this  Colonel  Macon,  married 
Orlando  Jones,  and  a  granddaughter  of  this  union, 
Miss  Martha  Dandridge,  became  the  wife  of  John 
Parke  Custis.  Mrs.  Custis  was  early  left  a  widow, 
and  a  wealthy  widow,  who,  as  all  the  world  knows, 
became  Martha  Washington.2  There  were  many 

1  Meade:  Old  Churches  and  Parishes,  I.,  387. 

2  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,  July,  1897. 

2 


2  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Macons  in  Virginia  about  the  middle  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century,  and  many  of  them  were  connected 
with  the  most  prominent  families  in  the  colony. 
Henry  Macon,  of  Goochland,  was  one  of  these ;  and 
Thomas  Macon,  a  brother-in-law  of  James  Madi 
son,  of  Orange,  was  another. 

Gideon  Macon,  brother  to  William  of  Prospect 
Hill,1  emigrated  to  upper  North  Carolina  in  the 
early  thirties  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  "took 
up  lands"  on  Shocco  Creek  within  the  domains  of  the 
Earl  of  Granville.  About  the  same  time  Philemon 
Hawkins  and  Edward  Jones,  of  Gloucester  county, 
Virginia — adjoining  New  Kent — settled  in  the 
Shocco  neighborhood.2  This  was  the  beginning  of 
a  veritable  "trek"  of  the  East  Virginians  to  North 
Carolina.  The  whole  scope  of  country  lying 
between  the  Roanoke  and  Neuse  rivers,  west  of  the 
Tarboro  neighborhood,  known  in  that  day  as  "the 
Southside  of  Roanoke,"  was  settled  by  Virginians, 
who  found  the  lands  of  the  older  colony  already 
worn  out !  The  Southside  of  Roanoke  became  Edge- 
combe  county  in  1741,  and  again  the  upper  part  of 
this  section  was  made  Bute  county  in  1760.  The 
new  court  house  was  located  near  the  Macon  manor, 
that  being  the  center  of  the-  most  influential  part  of 
the  county. 

"Macon  Manor,"  as  the  place  is  called  to-day, 
was  built  by  this  first  North  Carolina  Macon.  In 
a  short  time,  thanks  to  exemption  from  all  disturb 
ance,  to  fertile  soil  and  industrious  hands,  Gideon 
Macon  became  a  prosperous  tobacco  grower.  Hawk 
ins  and  Jones  and  many  another  followed  the  same 
occupation ;  they  opened  a  road  to  Petersburg,  Vir 
ginia,  where  they  journeyed  once  a  year  to  sell  their 

i  This  is  not  shown  by  the  records,  but  the  author  is  quite  satisfied  as 
to  the  correctness  of  the  statement, 
a  Wheeler's  History  of  North  Carolina,  II.,  426. 


THE  MACON  FAMILY.  3 

tobacco.  The  Macon  manor  was  the  first  house  in 
the  new  country  which  boasted  the  superior  advan 
tage  of  glass  windows,  though  Hawkins,  just  five 
miles  away,  was  the  wealthier  man.  None  of  the 
settlers,  however,  were  possessed  of  very  great 
wealth,  as  was  to  be  expected,  even  as  late  as  1760. 
Most  of  them  owned  some  five  hundred  to  a  thou 
sand  acres  of  land  and  a  half  dozen  to  twenty 
negro  slaves.  They  were  good,  loyal  subjects  of 
King  George,  rather  disposed  to  follow  his  Majes 
ty's  governors  than  the  Eastern  oligarchy,  then  so 
potent  in  North  Carolina  affairs.  Hawkins  actu 
ally  rose  to  some  rank  as  an  official  under  Tryon, 
the  best-hated  of  all  our  English  governors. 

Gideon  Macon's  will,1  probated  in  1763,  disposed, 
however,  of  three  thousand  acres  of  land  and  some 
twenty-five  to  thirty  negroes.  Priscilla  Macon,2 
widow  of  Gideon  Macon,  was  made  sole  executrix  of 
the  estate  and  guardian  of  the  Macon  children.  No 
complaint  seems  ever  to  have  been  made  by  any  of 
the  heirs  concerning  the  administration  of  the  prop 
erty — proof  enough  of  Mrs.  Macon's  ability,  and  of 
the  relations  which  had  prevailed  between  husband 
and  wife. 

Nathaniel  Macon,  the  sixth  child  of  Gideon  and 
Priscilla  Macon,  was  born  at  Macon  manor,  Decem 
ber  17,  1758.  He  was  only  five  years  of  age  when 
his  father  died.  Item  three  of  the  father's  will 
reads  as  follows :  "  I  give  and  bequeath  to  my 
son,  Nathaniel  Macon,  all  the  remainder  part  of 
the  above  (Shocco  tract),  said  tract  of  land  lying 
and  being  on  both  sides  of  Shocco  Creek,  and  above 
the  said  court  house  road.  I  likewise  give  to  my 
said  son  five  hundred  acres  of  land  lying  and  being 

i  Warren  County  Records 

a  Priscilla  Macon  afterwards  married  James  Ransom,  the  ancestor  of 
Matthew  W.  Ransom,  United  States  Senator  and  Minister  to  Mexico. 


4  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

on  both  sides  of  Hubquarter  Creek  (on  Roanoke). 
I  likewise  give  my  said  son  my  blacksmith's  tools 
at  the  decease  of  my  loving  wife,  Priscilla  Macon. 
to  him  and  his  heirs  forever.  *  *  *  I  give 
and  bequeath  to  my  son,  Nathaniel  Macon,  two 
negro  boys,  named  George  and  Robb,  and  one  ne 
gro  girl,  named  Lucy,  to  him  and  his  heirs  forever."1 
It  was  not  a  great  legacy,  not  so  much  as  Thomas 
Jefferson's  £500  a  year — but  a  nucleus  which,  with 
his  mother's  careful  management  during  the  sixteen 
years  of  his  minority,  became  no  inconsiderable 
estate. 

In  1766,  Mr.  Charles  Pettigrew,  afterwards 
bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  North 
Carolina — ancestor,  too,  of  our  great  Confederate 
general  of  the  same  name — ,  was  engaged  by  Mrs. 
Macon  and  Philemon  Hawkins  to  open  a  school  near 
the  court  house,  i.  e.,  about  half-way  between  the  two 
estates.  Pettigrew's  school  continued  from  1766  to 
1773,  and  had  for  pupils  John  and  Nathaniel  Macon 
and  Joseph  and  Benjamin  Hawkins,  three  of  whom 
showed  the  value  of  the  school  and  the  success  of 
the  teacher  by  becoming  students  at  the  "College  of 
New  Jersey"  at  Princeton.  In  1773,  Pettigrew  was 
called  to  Edenton  to  become  Principal  of  the  Acad 
emy  recently  established  there  by  the  Legislature  on 
the  active  and  persistent  recommendation  of  Samuel 
Johnston. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  was  taught 
in  that  pioneer  school  in  the  Shocco  neighborhood, 
but  no  record  remains  except  what  is  seen  in  the 
lives  of  the  pupils,  of  which  we  shall  see  more  as 
our  subject  grows.  Pettigrew,  though  he  was  called 
to  a  broader  and  more  promising  field,  never  lost 
sight  of  the  boys  whom  he  had  trained  in  his  first 

1  Warren  County  Records. 


THE  MACON  FAMILY.  5 

school.  He  wrote  in  1802  to  Benjamin  Hawkins, 
of  Alabama:  "Believe  me,  sir,  the  prosperity  and 
respectability  of  any  of  my  old  pupils  gives  me  the 
sincerest  pleasure,  and  I  am  peculiarly  happy  to  find 
that  your  old  schoolmate,  Macon,  makes  so  respect 
able  a  figure  in  Congress."1 

Whether  Macon  was  regularly  in  school,  whether 
he  was  a  proficient,  or  whether  he  showed  early 
signs  of  future  distinction,  neither  Pettigrew  nor 
Gotten,  Macon's  professed  biographer,  tells  us.  The 
one  proof  that  the  boy  was  ambitious,  and  there 
fore  industrious,  to  some  extent,  at  least,  is  shown 
in  his  early  resolution  to  go  to  college,  even  under 
disadvantages.  Gotten,  whose  business  it  was  pri 
marily  to  tell  about  this,  fills  his  pages  with  gen 
eral  and  impossible  compliments  to  the  paragon 
of  a  youth  who  "manifested  at  an  early  period 
of  life  a  curiosity  incessantly  engaged  in  pur 
suing  enquiries  and  accumulating  a  knowledge 
which,  to  common  observers,  might  have  frequently 
appeared  to  be  an  obstinate,  self-willed  principle  of 
mind,  wasting  itself  in  unprofitable  speculations  and 
refusing  to  bring  its  energies  to  bear  upon  a  pur 
suit  pointed  out  by  another."  Again,  Macon  "com 
pressed  more  experience  in  a  given  time,  when  a 
youth,  than  any  of  his  ordinary  associates — he  con 
temned  the  absurdities  of  youth,"  but  was  "diffident, 
self-suspicious,  modest."  This  last  named  we  are 
assured  may  "rightly  be  classed  as  an  early  and  cer 
tain  trait  of  Macon's  character" ;  and,  in  truth,  he 
was  never  over-conscious  of  his  own  importance, 
not  even  when  he  was  undisputed  leader  in  North 
Carolina  and  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  in  Congress.  He  seems  to  have  been,  if  Cot- 
ten's  statements  may  be  accepted  at  all,  frank,  high- 

*  Charles  Pettigrew  to  Benjamin  Hawkins. 


6  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

toned,  self-possessed,  even  in  early  life — a  sort  of 
man-boy,  the  youngster  who  sat  with  grown-up 
people  on  long  Sunday  evenings  and  talked  of 
crops  and  negroes  and  politics,  instead  of  swim 
ming  in  some  forbidden  mill  pond  or  stealing  water 
melons,  as  occasion  offered;  not  just  the  boy  we 
should  admire,  no  matter  how  much  his  soberness  and 
premature  judgment  promised  as  to  the  future.  He 
never  yielded  to  temptation,  though  he  early  learned 
to  drink  great  gourdfuls  of  whiskey;  never  knew 
vice,  though  his  "brother  John"  was  the  greatest 
scape-grace  in  the  county ;  and  never,  like  Jefferson, 
wrote  sickly  love  epistles  to  country  lasses.  An 
analytical  turn  of  mind  he  certainly  must  have  mani 
fested,  a  disposition  to  subject  everything  to  logical 
inquiry,  to  indulge,  too,  in  paradox  and  unexpected 
questionings.  Though  his  mind  was  well  balanced 
and  capable  of  giving  good  judgments,  even  when 
a  boy,  he  was  often  prone  to  substitute  the  smaller 
for  the  greater  aspects  of  life. 


CHAPTER  II. 

AT 


A  great  deal  has  been  said  about  Macon's  difficulty 
in  procuring  means  for  the  completion  of  his  educa 
tion,  about  the  contributions  of  neighbors  to  his  sup 
port,  the  indifference  of  his  parents  to  his  ambition, 
and,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  most  of  it  entirely 
without  foundation.  In  1774  he  was  only  fifteen 
years  old,  and  just  out  of  Pettigrew's  school, 
which  had  been  closed  for  want  of  a  teacher; 
he  was  heir  to  a  very  respectable  estate,  and 
was  the  most  promising  son^  in  a  well-to-do  fam 
ily.  Now  a  boy  of  fifteen  is  «  not  apt  to  be  con 
ducting  a  campaign  against  poverty  and  adverse 
circumstances  in  order  to  enter  college,  and  cer 
tainly  not  a  favorite  in  the  second  wealthiest  family 
'in  his  community.  Macon's  home  was  the  best  in 
the  county,  as  it  appears,  and  his  parents  were  too 
proud,  even  had  they  been  poor,  to  relish  the  idea  of 
asking  assistance  in  the  education  of  their  son  by 
public  or  neighborhood  charity.  Besides,  such 
assistance  is  entirely  at  variance  with  the  character  of 
Macon  even  as  a  boy.  The  whole  story,  invented 
by  Gotten  and  Weldon  N.  Edwards,  without  further 
investigation  seems  to  resolve  itself  into  a  myth, 
manufactured  to  suit  their  particular  fancies.  The 
situation  was  simply  this  :  Macon's  mother  saw 
great  promise  in  her  boy,  she  believed  in  education, 
she  had  been  instrumental  in  establishing  the  Petti- 
grew  school  ;  two  of  Nathaniel's  young  friends,  Ben- 


8  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

jamin  and  Joseph  Hawkins,  were  doing  well  at 
Princeton,  as  the  college  has  later  come  to  be  desig 
nated.  What  could  have  been  more  natural  than 
Macoirs  desire  to  join  his  former  schoolmates,  and 
what  more  reasonable  than  for  the  mother  to  share 
her  son's  ambition  and  lend  all  the  assistance  neces 
sary?  That  some  little  difficulty  arose  about  get 
ting  together  the  means  for  such  a  course,  and  that 
the  "going  away  to  college"  was  a  matter  of  some 
notoriety  among  the  neighbors  in  that  simple  coun 
try-side  is  but  natural.  As  Gotten  has  told  us, 
there  may  have  been  a  farewell  gathering  and  well- 
wishing,  for  a  journey  to  New  Jersey  was  almost 
equal  to  a  trip  to  Europe. 

And  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  not  William  and 
Mary,  was  chosen.  All  the  boys  who  went  to  col 
lege  from  Bute  county  in  those  days,  and  most  of 
those  from  North  Carolina,  went  to  Princeton  as 
did  many  of  the  Virginians — Martin,  the  later  poet- 
governor  of  North  Carolina,  and  Madison  and  Mon 
roe  being  examples.  During  the  years  immediately 
preceding  the  Revolution,  and  for  many  years  after, 
there  were  three  courses  open  to  a  young  Southerner 
who  desired  a  higher  education.  First  and  most 
desirable  of  all,  it  was  to  "go  home"  to  England  and 
spend  four  years  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  finally 
completing  the  professional  part  of  his  training  at 
one  of  the  great  law  schools  in  London,  or  at  the 
medical  school  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  And 
this  was  not  uncommon  even  with  people  of  modest 
fortunes.  The  colonies  were  closer  to  England  than 
"the  States"  ever  have  been,  and  any  merchant's 
ship  that  laid  in  its  cargo  of  tobacco  on  the  James, 
or  the  Potomac,  or  of  lumber  and  naval  stores  on  the 
Neuse  or  Cape  Fear,  was  only  too  glad  to  take  on 
board  a  sprightly  young  man  to  make  good  cheer  on 


AT  COLLEGE.  9 


the  long  meandering  voyage  across  the  Atlantic.  It 
was  nothing  strange  in  the  Northern  Neck  of  Vir 
ginia,  nor  on  the  streets  of  colonial  Hdenton,  to 
meet  people  who  had  spent  years  abroad  —  men  lived 
in  America  then  in  order  to  return  home  to  enjoy 
their  new-won  fortunes.  These  young  men,  ordi 
narily  sons  of  the  wealthier  families,  returned  after 
a  stay  of  four  to  six  years  as  thoroughly  English  as 
had  been  their  fathers  when  first  they  set  foot  on 
American  shores.  They  were  gentlemen  in  all  that 
an  Englishman  considered  necessary  to  such  a 
character,  and  destined  to  take  a  lead  by  natural 
right,  almost,  in  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  Second, 
the  less  wealthy,  and  Episcopalians  generally,  patron 
ized  William  and  Mary,  and  afterwards  took  law 
under  Wythe  or  one  of  the  Randolphs  —  Jefferson 
and  Marshall  are  notable  examples  of  these.  Third, 
the  Dissenters  —  "the  sects,"  as  they  were  persistently 
called  —  sent  their  sons  to  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
to  enjoy  the  direction  and  instruction  of  Doctor 
Witherspoon,  whose  name  and  work  were  well 
known  from  Boston  to  Savannah.  The  Presbyte 
rians  were,  however,  pioneers  in  education  in  the 
South;  and  the  service  they  rendered  the  country 
in  sending  out  young  school  teachers  can  not  be 
over-estimated. 

Young  Macon's  career  as  a  student  at  Princeton 
is  a  blank  to  us,  the  records  of  the  college  previous 
to  1787  having  been  destroyed,  and  none  of  Macon's 
letters  referring  to  that  period  of  his  life  having  been 
preserved.  What  the  institution  was,  we  may  judge 
from  Philip  Fithian's  most  interesting  diary,  and 
the  letters  of  Burr,  Monroe  and  others.  It  was  a 
good  Presbyterian  seminary,  chiefly  theological  — 
the  hot-bed  of  strictly  Calvinistic  tenets.  Its  aca 
demic  curriculum  was  about  equivalent  to  a  first- 


10  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

rate  academy  of  our  time.  Latin  and  Greek  and 
Mathematics  constituted  the  trinity  of  liberal  culture 
everywhere  in  the  latter  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  French  was  taught,  of  course,  somewhat  for 
the  same  reasons  that  all  our  colleges  are  teaching 
Spanish  now.  Macon's  friend  and  college  mate, 
Benjamin  Hawkins,  became  such  a  proficient  in  that 
language  that  good  Doctor  Witherspoon  recom 
mended  him  to  Washington  for  a  position  on  his 
staff  as  interpreter  of  French,  and  that,  too,  before 
Hawkins  had  completed  the  course.1  In  fact,  the 
tongue  of  the  Parisians  was  much  more  commonly 
understood  in  America  then  than  it  has  ever  been 
since.  Burr  and  Hamilton,  without  ever  having 
crossed  the  seas,  spoke  French  as  fluently  as  they 
did  their  own  language.  But  Macon  did  not  learn 
French,  nor  Latin  to  any  great  degree  of  proficiency, 
though  he  was  able  afterwards  to  take  up  the  study 
of  law.  Something  of  Latin  he  did  know,  as  is  evi 
denced  occasionally  in  his  correspondence  of  later 
years.  His  education,  contrary  to  the  general  opin 
ion,  was  good — not  broad,  but  substantial,  sufficient 
for  entrance  upon  the  study  of  any  of  the  profes 
sions.  It  has  been  repeatedly  asserted  that  he  was 
illiterate,  that  he  could  not  write  English  correctly. 
This  is  not  true,  though  it  can  not  be  claimed  that 
he  wrote  with  ease  and  fluency.  His  letters  are 
generally  short  and  pithy,  and  sometimes  the  senten 
ces  are  carelessly  constructed;  but  the  reading  of 
some  two  hundred  of  them,  covering  the  whole 
period  of  his  life,  will  confirm  one  in  the  belief  that 
his  training  at  the  country  school  of  Bute  and  at 
Princeton  was  thorough  and  extensive,  considering 
the  short  duration  of  those  terms  of  academic  drill. 
Fewer  orthographical  errors  occur  in  his  writings 

*  Ufe  of  Hawkins  in  Wheeler's  History  of  North  Carolina,  II.,  427. 


AT  COLLEGE.  11 

than  in  a  similar  amount  of  Jefferson's,  and  on 
such  comparisons  is  based  the  argument  that  Macon 
was  almost  illiterate. 

In  the  summer  of  1776,  Macon  joined  a  company 
of  New  Jersey  militia — a  sort  of  local  guard,  it 
appears — and  served  "a  tour,"  he  tells  us  on  the  mar 
gin  of  a  letter  he  wrote  the  North  Carolina  Assem- 
.bly  in  1828.  What  he  did,  and  where  those  college 
volunteers  were  sent,  has  not  been  ascertained.  The 
war  soon  absorbed  all  interest  and  attention,  and  the 
college  was  closed,  its  students  either  returning 
home  or  joining  the  feeble  forces  of  Washington.  It 
was  in  that  sad  summer  and  autumn,  when  the 
American  army  was  more  formidable  to  its  com 
mander  than  to  Clinton  and  the  British,  when  militia 
companies  were  flying  hither  and  thither  to  suit  their 
own  fickle  fancies,  that  our  hero,  now  seventeen 
years  old,  took  up  his  journey  southward.  Hawk 
ins,  his  friend,  had  joined  the  army,  and  was  begin 
ning  to  make  a  career  for  himself.  There  was 
utmost  need  for  Macon  in  the  North;  many  of  his 
fellow  Carolinians  were  in  the  Continental  army,  and 
surely  there  was  no  immediate  danger  threatening 
his  native  State.  He  returned,  notwithstanding,  to 
the  quiet  country  court  house  to  take  up  the  study  of 
law,  like  many  another  of  our  Revolutionary  leaders. 
His  college  days  were  over — closed  perforce;  what 
he  had  received  has  been  discussed  and  estimated. 
It  had  not  made  an  American  of  him,  as  is  shown  by 
his  return  to  his  home  when  America  was  most  in 
need  of  his  services.  He  was  primarily  a  citizen  of 
his  State,  as  was  everyone  else  in  this  country  in 
1776,  and  many  years  after. 

Under  whom  Macon  studied  law,  and  with  what 
success,  like  many  other  points  in  his  biogra 
phy,  we  are  unable  to  determine.  His  own  state- 


12  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ments  in  later  life,  and  the  testimony  of  tradition, 
show  that  he  spent  the  years  1777-1780  in  reading 
law  and  English  history  under  the  direction  of  some 
one  living  at  Bute  Court  House.  But  Macon  never 
practiced  law,  nor  even  acquired  the  lawyer's  point 
of  view  in  politics  or  personal  affairs.  He  was 
unquestionably  as  much  a  tobacco  planter  as  a  stu 
dent,  even  in  his  years  of  study. 


CHAPTER  III. 

NORTH    CAROLINA   DURING   THE   REVOLUTION. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  North  Carolina's  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  in  1860-1865 — 
and  no  people  ever  sacrificed  more — it  can  not  be 
said  that  it  gave  general  and  heroic  support  to  the 
cause  of  Independence.  No  state  acted  other  than 
a  selfish  role  in  that,  our  first  war.  It  was  not  a 
nation's  struggle,  but  that  of  a  large  faction  of  a 
nascent  nation — a  war  waged  by  fits  and  starts,  and 
won  by  the  greatness  and  heroism  of  one  man. 
Foreign  students  of  American  history  are  not 
far  wrong  when  they  say  that  Washington  was 
the  only  great,  heroic  figure  in  all  that  seven 
years  drama  of  Liberty.  No  comparison  can  be 
made  between  the  behavior  of  our  fathers  in  1776 
and  the  people  of  Holland  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
where  a  whole  people  rose  in  arms  and  continued  in 
arms  during  the  lifetime  of  three  generations,  paying 
half  of  their  total  incomes  into  the  coffers  of  the 
state.  In  America  it  was  the  self-sacrifice  and  coop 
eration  of  a  few  far-seeing  individuals  that  gained 
the  struggle.  The  people  remained  at  home,  and 
systematic  taxation  was  almost  unknown.  Macon 
was  one  of  these  people,  and  the  motives  which  kept 
him  quietly  studying  law  at  Bute  Court  House  dur 
ing  the  years  1777-1780,  were  the  same  which  kept 
most  other  North  Carolinians  at  home,  the  same 
which  prompted  the  Connecticut  militia  to  go  troop- 


14  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ing  back  to  their  farms  when  Washington's  army 
crossed  the  Hudson  in  1776. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  however,  North 
Carolina,  like  most  of  the  other  states,  was  aroused 
to  an  extraordinary  degree  of  enthusiasm.  The 
Royal  Governor,  Josiah  Martin,  was  supplanted  at 
once,  as  many  another  had  been  in  the  history  of  the 
colony ;  a  new  government  was  speedily  set  up,  and 
within  twelve  months  ten  thousand  troops  were 
enlisted  and  actually  in  service,  some  in  Virginia, 
others  in  South  Carolina,  and  several  regiments  in 
the  Continental  army  at  the  North.  Great  zeal  for 
the  popular  cause  was  manifested;  elections  were 
held  every  six  months,  and  when  the  Provincial  Con 
gress  assembled  at  Halifax  in  1776,  not  a  member 
was  absent.  There  were  then  in  North  Carolina 
three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  which  would 
give  a  fighting  population  of  sixty  thousand,  reck 
oned  on  the  basis  of  one  to  five,  the  ratio  of 
Prussia  in  the  wars  of  Frederick  the  Great.  Ten 
thousand  volunteers  was  a  creditable  contribu 
tion  to  the  general  cause ;  but  it  did  not  represent,  by 
any  means,  the  military  strength  of  the  new  gov 
ernment,  and  this  was  when  the  country  was  ablaze 
with  patriotic  enthusiasm.1  The  following  year 
the  ardor  of  the  people  was  cooling,  and  in  1778 
the  total  number  of  privates  in  Washington's  army 
from  North  Carolina  was  nine  hundred ;  of  officers, 
there  were  five  hundred  and  fifty,  all  unwilling  to 
serve  regularly  except  in  their  full  rank !  At  home, 
James  Iredell  gave  up,  this  year,  a  Superior  Court 
Judgship  because  the  emoluments  were  insufficient; 
Samuel  Johnston,  his  brother-in-law,  refused  to 
serve  as  State  Treasurer,  though  he  admitted  the 

i  It  is  worth  noting  here  that  during  the  Civil  War  Ijastern  and  Cen 
tral  North  Carolina  furnished  one  soldier  to  every  six  inhabitants. 


DURING  THE  REVOLUTION.  15 

emoluments  were  ample  enough.  William  Hooper, 
too,  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Continental  Congress. 
Wise  and  wealthy  men  thought  it  too  dangerous  to 
be  over-zealous  on  either  side. 

In  order  to  fill  the  vacancies  in  the  ranks  of  the 
North  Carolina  regiments  the  Continental  Congress 
offered  bounties  of  one  hundred  dollars  each  for  vol 
unteers,  but  without  success;  then  the  State  was 
called  on  to  fill  up  her  quota,  and  twenty-six  hundred 
and  forty  men  were  ordered  to  be  drafted  from  the 
militia  for  terms  of  nine  months,  with  the  promise 
of  exemption  from  further  service  during  a  period 
of  three  years,  and,  in  addition,  a  bounty  of  fifty  dol 
lars  from  the  State  was  guaranteed  each  man.  All 
these  rewards  were  designed  to  make  the  drafting 
less  odious,  and  to  encourage  faithful  service  at 
least  for  the  short  term.  The  increase  in  the  number 
of  North  Carolinians  in  the  national  service  as  a 
result  of  these  recruiting  measures  was,  by  the  end 
of  the  year,  four  hundred  men  and  officers  !  Several 
additional  companies  were,  however,  finally  raised, 
and  were,  during  the  autumn  of  1778,  encamped  at 
Salisbury,  Hillsboro  and  one  or  two  other  points; 
but,  when  Congress  failed  to  send  its  promised  boun 
ties  promptly,  most  of  the  tioops  returned  to  their 
homes  on  furlough — a  semblance  of  discipline  this 
last.  In  1779,  after  the  news  of  Saratoga  and  of  the 
French  alliance  had  permeated  the  State,  this  same 
indifference  continued.  During  the  spring  and 
summer  of  that  year  an  effort  was  made  to  send  a 
strong  force  into  South  Carolina  for  the  relief  of 
Savannah.  General  Sumner,  of  Warren,  the  ranking 
general  in  North  Carolina,  was  put  in  command. 
Seven  hundred  and  fifty-seven  men  joined  him,  of 
whom  four  hundred  and  twenty-one  were  on 
hand  when  it  came  to  an  actual  engagement! 


16  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

On  April  10,  the  nine-months'  term  of  the  men 
expired,  and,  notwithstanding  the  great  needs  of 
the  situation  and  the  urgent  entreaties  of  their 
commanders  to  re-enlist,  every  man,  we  are  told, 
set  out  for  his  home.  This  kind  of  service  con 
tinued  unimproved  until  I78O.1  But  it  was  not 
worse  in  North  Carolina  than  in  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  during  the  same  years.  The  Pennsyl 
vania  farmers  fought  in  the  same  way.  These 
healthy  and  wealthy  Germans,  with  their  neighbors, 
listened  carefully  for  news  from  Washington's  army, 
and  when  it  appeared  that  the  Americans  were  about 
to  win  a  speedy  success,  they  set  out  in  troops  for  the 
front;  but  if  bad  news  met  them  on  the  way,  they 
disappeared,  like  prairie  dogs,  among  their  native 
hills.2  But  the  principal  cause  of  this  supine 
support  of  the  great  national  movement  on  the  part 
of  North  Carolina  was  the  neutralization  of  the 
forces  ©f  the  patriots :  ( I )  By  the  effects  of  the 
War  of  Regulation  in  1769-1771 ;  (2)  by  the  pres 
ence  of  large  numbers  of  Scotch  Royalists  in  the 
middle  and  upper  Cape  Fear  regions;  (3)  by  the 
opponents  of  democratic  government,  i.  e.,  by  the 
influence  of  the  determined  minority  in  the  assem 
blies,  led  by  Hooper,  Johnston,  Iredell  and  others. 

i.  The  War  of  Regulation  was  the  result  of, 
unjust  taxation  and  oppressive  methods  of  collecting 
the  same.  The  East,  wealthy  and  populous,  was 
divided  into  plantations  which  were  cultivated  by 
negro  slaves ;  the  West,  poor,  and  also  populous,  was 
composed  of  small  farms  whose  owners  did  all  their 
own  work,  receiving  for  their  produce  very  small 

*  N.  C.  State  Records,  XIII,  and  XIV,  prefatory  notes.  The  state 
ments  made  above  are  borne  out  by  numberless  documents  all  through 
these  volumes. 

2  Letters  of  David  Griffith  to  I,even  Powell,  Randolph- Macon  Histori 
cal  Papers,  1901. 


DURING  THE  REVOLUTION.  17 

incomes  after  the  great  expense  of  carrying  it  to  dis 
tant  markets  was  deducted.  The  East  was  an  oli 
garchy;  the  West  a  democracy.  The  two  sections 
could  not  easily  have  been  brought  to  live  peaceably 
together  under  the  most  beneficent  laws;  so  much 
the  worse  when  the  Hast  persisted  in  domineering 
and  exploiting  the  West.  The  ancient  method  for 
raising  the  revenue  for  the  expenses  of  the  province 
had  been  by  levying  a  uniform  poll  tax.  As  the  dif 
ference  between  the  two  sections  of  the  province 
became  greater,  the  more  unjust  did  this  method 
of  taxation  appear.  The  West,  after  years  of  peti 
tion  and  complaint,  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in 
1769.  This  first  opposition  to  the  East  was  compro 
mised  and  apparently  settled  by  the  shrewd  and  able 
Governor  Tryon.  But  when  conditions  grew  stead 
ily  worse,  and  to  injustice  was  added  systematic 
extortion,  the  revolt  broke  out  afresh  in  1771,  with 
three  thousand  men  in  arms.  Tryon  called  on  the 
Eastern  counties  for  sufficient  quotas  of  troops, which 
were  cheerfully  granted.  June  16,  1771,  the  Gov 
ernor,  with  most  of  the  great  plantation  owners 
as  his  lieutenants,  completely  defeated  and  routed 
the  Regulators.  Speedy  and  bloody  execution  was 
administered  to  the  more  important  leaders  who 
could  be  apprehended.  An  iron-clad  oath  was 
forced  upon  the  people  of  the  disaffected  district, 
which  included  Orange,  Guilford  and  parts  of 
Rowan  and  Granville  counties — a  population  of  at 
least  twenty  thousand  souls.  The  East  triumphed 
over  the  West.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  these 
people,  bound  by  most  solemn  oaths  and  smarting 
under  the  injustice  of  recent  proceedings,  remained, 
most  of  them,  neutral;  and  some  actually  enlisted 
under  the  Royal  standard.  This  neutralized  a  large 
section  of  the  state ;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  under- 


18  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

stand  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  same  men  who 
commanded  in  Tryon's  army  in  1771  were  command 
ing  divisions  in  the  patriot  army  in  I776.1 

2.  The  defeat  of  the  Scots  in  1715  began  the 
migration  of  that  sturdy  race  to  North  Carolina ;  but 
the  final  overthrow  of  their  armies  at  Culloden  in 
1746  broke  forever  the  spirit  of  revolt  and  sent 
thousands  in  quest  of  new  homes  in  the  West. 
Large  numbers  of  these  settled  in  the  Cape  Fear 
regions  of  North  Carolina.  They  had  all  taken  a 
specially  stringent  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  House  of 
Hanover,  either  before  they  set  out  for  America  or 
before  they  were  granted  lands  in  North  Carolina. 
The  Scotch  were  royalists,  and  had  suffered  untold 
miseries  in  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  Stuarts. 
Their  cause  was  hopelessly  lost,  and  they  accepted 
the  Hanovers,  it  seems,  in  good  faith  on  condition  of 
oblivion  of  the  past  and  the  possession  of  lands  in 
their  adopted  country.  They  occupied  Cumberland 
(significant  name  for  the  Scotch)  and  neighboring 
counties,  embracing  most  of  the  lands  lying  between 
Bladen  and  Rowan  counties,  and  extending  south 
ward  to  the  borders  of  South  Carolina.  When  Gov 
ernor  Martin  was  expelled  from  the  state  and  pro 
claimed,  like  King  James  II.  in  1688,  "abdicated/5 
the  Scotch  made  Martin's  cause  their  own,  as  their 
ancestors  had  done  for  the  House  of  Stuart.  Wheeler 
tries  to  prove  them  good  patriots  by  producing  an 
intensely  revolutionary  document  signed  by  leading 
citizens  of  Cumberland;  but  a  glance  at  the  signa 
tures  discovers  not  a  single  "Mac,"  nor  a  Campbell, 
which  disproves  the  proof.  February  27,  1776,  it 
came  to  a  pitched  battle  at  Moore's  Creek  bridge, 

i  Best  short  aorount  of  the  Regulators'  War  yet  published  is  that  by 
Colonel  Sounder*  Li  his  Prefatory  Notes  to  the  North  Carolina  Colonial 
Records,  vol.  VJII  Mr.  Marshall  DeLancey  Haywood  has  just  pub 
lished  a.  fuller  account  ol  this  movement  in  his  excellent  life  of  Gov 
ernor  Tryon. 


DURING  THE  REVOLUTION.  19 

some  miles  below  Fayetteville,  or  Campbelltown, 
between  the  Whigs  and  the  Scotch.  Two  thousand 
Highlanders,  as  they  were  still  termed,  were  over 
whelmed  by  an  inferior  force  of  Whigs.  The  vic 
tory  was  so  complete,  and  the  tide  of  Whig  enthu 
siasm  throughout  the  East  and  North  so  strong, 
that  no  more  attempts  were  made  by  the  Scotch  to 
assist  the  Royal  cause  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
There  were,  too,  in  their  midst  so  many  older  set 
tlers  who  sided  with- the  Revolutionists  that  any  gen 
eral  movement  was  very  difficult.  Nevertheless,  the 
presence  of  so  many  staunch  friends  of  the  House 
of  Hanover  neutralized  a  large  amount  of  the 
state's  strength,  and  this  the  more  completely  since 
the  disaffected  region  was  contiguous  to  that  of  the 
humiliated  Regulators  and  to  the  Tory  counties  of 
South  Carolina. 

3.  A  very  respectable  party  of  the  Whigs,  who 
had  assisted  the  American  national  movement  in  its 
beginning,  when  petitioning  for  redress  of  griev 
ances  was  the  avowed  object  of  organized  opposi 
tion,  was  alienated  when  men  began  to  speak  of 
independence  and  a  democratic  republic,  or  a  num 
ber  of  republics.  Many  of  the  most  prominent  and 
best  educated  people  of  upper  Eastern  North  Caro 
lina,  with  Samuel  Johnston  as  their  leader,  either 
secretly  advocated  continued  obedience  to  England, 
or  openly  demanded  the  enactment  of  the  most  con 
servative  measures.  A  similar  party  existed  in  and 
about  Wilmington,  with  William  Hooper  as  leader, 
which  was  the  ground  for  Jefferson's  later  declara 
tion  that  Hooper  was  a  great  Tory,  and  of  course  it 
was  known  that  all  Hooper's  family  publicly  sup 
ported  the  Royal  cause.  These  conservatives  were 
strong  enough  to  name  the  representatives  to  the 
Continental  Congress  during  the  earlier  years  of  the 


20  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

war — Hooper  being  the  leader  of  the  delegation; 
rather,  the  Patriots  made  this  concession  in  the  hope 
of  winning  their  support  and  influence.  Johnston's 
defeat  in  his  plan  of  controlling  the  Hillsboro  Con 
vention,  and  his  more  open  defeat  in  Chowan  for  a 
seat  in  the  Halifax  Convention,  so  disappointed  him 
that  he  became  from  that  time  on  what  would  be 
called  in  modern  slang  a  "disgruntled  politician," 
and  was  continually  growling  and  complaining  in 
his  retirement  at  every  step  taken  by  the  dominant 
party.  He  refused  to  meet  concessions  made  to  him 
in  the  form  of  the  most  lucrative  office  in  the  gift  of 
the  government.1  What  Johnston  thought,  thought 
also  a  numerous  party  of  family  and  political  connec 
tions  living  in  all  parts  of  the  state.  Now,  as  has 
been  said,  the  Revolutionary  War  was  pre-eminently 
a  war  of  leaders,  the  popular  enthusiasm  seldom  ex 
tending  beyond  state  lines,  and  with  several  wealthy, 
educated  and  able  men  leading  a  positive  opposition 
to  the  main  measures  of  the  new  government,  or 
even  a  passive  opposition,  which  no  one  will  dis 
pute,  at  that  critical  juncture  of  our  political  devel 
opment,  it  was  well-nigh  impossible  to  enforce  ener 
getic  plans. 

These  influences — a  half-spiteful  neutrality  or  an 
open  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Regulators,  posi 
tive  and  organized  support  of  the  British  cause  by 
the  Scotch,  and  the  paralyzing  influence  of  luke 
warm  leaders — combined  with  intensely  local  patriot 
ism,  were  the  causes  of  the  almost  shameful  lethargy 
of  North  Carolina  during  the  long  period  of  1777 
to  1780. 

Geographically  considered,  the  Patriots  had  actual 
control  of  but  a  small  portion  of  North  Carolina — 
the  Southside  of  Roanoke,  *.  e.,  a  section  of  country 

i  See  page  14. 


DURING  THE  REVOLUTION.  21 

containing  a  population  of  some  seventy  to  eighty 
thousand  people.  Bute,  its  central  county,  boasted 
that  it  had  not  a  Tory  within  its  borders.  The  upper 
Cape  Fear  and  the  Regulator  country  to  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Guilford  Court  House  was  the  scene  of 
almost  constant  civil  strife  during  most  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  War.  This  cut  off  from  actual  coopera 
tion  with  the  northern  part  of  the  state  the  bold 
Mecklenburgers  and  the  Catawba  backwoodsmen. 
South  Carolina,  too,  was  the  home  of  disaffection, 
and  being  contiguous  to  the  Royalist  counties  of 
North  Carolina,  the  strength  of  the  Tories  was  much 
increased. 

It  was  to  such  a  state  that  Nathaniel  Macon 
returned  in  the  autumn  of  1776  to  prepare  himself 
further  for  a  public  career.  In  December  following, 
his  brother  John  became  a  captain  of  a  company  of 
Regulars,  and  marched  away  to  join  Washington. 
General  Sumner,  next-door  neighbor  to  the  Macons, 
was  a  commander  in  the  Continental  service.  Ma- 
con's  native  county,  we  have  seen,  was  the  strong 
hold  of  the  Whigs.  In  1778,  when  such  urgent 
appeals  were  being  made  for  more  troops  to  fill  up 
the  depleted  ranks  of  North  Carolina's  Continental 
regiments,  when  bounties  were  offered  for  enlisting, 
when  numbers  of  his  fellow-countrymen  were 
drafted  into  the  service,  when,  early  in  1779,  South 
Carolina  was  being  threatened  and  General  Sumner 
marched  away  to  Savannah  with  a  meagre  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  troops,  Macon  kept  his  resolution 
and  remained  quiet  at  home,  pursuing  his  studies.1 
An  explanation  of  his  not  volunteering  into  the 
service  of  the  cause,  to  which  he  was  uncompro 
misingly  attached,  might  be  offered  in  that  he  did 

i  Better  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  August  6,  1803;  Gotten 's  Life  of  Ma 
con,  37. 


22  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

not  care  to  serve  as  a  private  soldier,  and  that  there 
was  already  a  superabundance  of  officers,  as  the 
example  of  John's  return  in  1778  from  Valley  Forge 
shows ;  but  his  future  service  as  a  private  soldier 
contradicts  this.  Those  who  claim  Macon  to  have 
been  a  demagogue  his  whole  life  long  would  say  he, 
like  many  others  during  those  years,  was  waiting  to 
see  how  things  were  going  to  turn,  and  then  join  the 
winning  side.  But  here  again  future  developments 
contradict.  In  1780,  when  he  did  take  active  part  in 
political  and  military  affairs,  he  was  chosen,  without 
his  previous  knowledge,  and  before  he  was  twenty- 
one  years  old,  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly, 
and  of  the  Senate  at  that.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  the 
foundation  of  his  popularity  was  laid  during  those 
years  of  study  at  home,  and  certainly  a  time-server, 
or  one  of  doubtful  loyalty,  could  not  have  been 
elected  to  any  position  of  honor  or  trust  in  Warren 
county.  (The  name  had  been  changed  in  1779.) 
To  the  author,  his  intense  local  patriotism,  his 
incomplete  education,  his  youth,  and  the  absence  of 
any  really  threatening  danger  to  North  Carolina,  is 
explanation  enough.  And,  moreover,  many  others 
were  following  a  similar  course — notably,  James 
Monroe,  who  had  retired  from  the  position  of  cap 
tain  in  the  regular  army  to  take  up  the  study  of  law 
under  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Benjamin  Hawkins,  too,  was  living  quietly  at 
home  since  March  or  April,  1778 — more  than  likely 
he  had  returned  with  John  Macon  and  for  similar 
reasons. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IN  THE;  ARMY  AGAIN. 

The  disastrous  attempt  of  D'Estiang  and  Lincoln 
on  Savannah,  October  9,  1777;  the  siege  of  Charles 
ton  and  the  rising  of  the  Royalists  in  large  numbers 
in  Cumberland,  Anson,  Moore  and  Tryon  counties, 
turned  the  earnest  attention  of  all  to  the  South. 
Seven  hundred  Virginians  under  Buford,  three  hun 
dred  under  Porterfield,  and  seven  hundred  North 
Carolina  militia  under  William  Caswell  were  hurry 
ing  on  to  Charleston.  Buford  and  Caswell  united 
their  forces  in  upper  South  Carolina,  but  on  hearing 
of  the  fall  of  Charleston,  May  12,  1780,  thej  divided 
their  commands.  Caswell  set  out  for  Cross  Creek, 
there  to  overawe  the  eight  hundred  Tories  collecting 
in  the  neighborhood ;  Buford  marched  toward  Char 
lotte,  but  was  surprised  by  a  strong  force  of  British 
under  Tarleton  and  utterly  ruined.  Porterfield  went 
into  camp  at  Salisbury,  awaiting  orders  after  the 
sad  news  of  Charleston.  These  reverses  heartened 
the  loyalists  in  all  sections ;  in  the  vicinity  of  Camp- 
belltown,  where  Caswell's  seven  hundred  men  had 
dwindled  down  to  less  than  four  hundred,  the 
enlisting  of  Royalists  could  not  be  prevented;  Col. 
John  Moore,  a  bold  Tory  of  the  extreme  West,  was 
collecting  a  force  of  some  thirteen  hundred  men  in 
Tryon  county;  in  Moore,  Guilford  and  Anson 
counties,  the  Whigs  were  driven  from  their  homes 
and  kept  in  the  forests  by  bands  of  marauders,  and, 
in  the  face  of  all  this,  the  militia  of  Chowan  and 


24  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

neighboring  counties,  refusing  to  march  until  their 
bounties  were  paid,  took  to  the  swamps  and  defied 
the  power  of  the  state.  On  the  borders  of  Johnston, 
Edgecombe  and  Nash  counties,  robbers  and  desert 
ers  formed  associations  to  prevent  the  drafting  of 
men  for  the  regular  army,  and  inaugurated  such  a 
reign  of  lawlessness  that  it  became  necessary  to 
send  troops  for  their  subjugation.  In  the  far  West, 
the  Indians,  too,  were  assuming  a  threatening  atti 
tude.1 

To  meet  the  invasion  of  Cornwallis  from  the 
south ;  to  check  the  rising  tide  of  anarchy  at  home ;  to 
guard  the  western  frontiers  against  the  Indians,  the 
Assembly  passed  measures  sweeping  enough,  as 
usual,  but  there  was  poor  means  of  enforcing  them. 
Richard  Caswell  was  made  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  North  Carolina  militia,  with  instructions  to 
begin  again  the  raising  of  the  four  thousand  troops 
"ordered"  forward  to  the  assistance  of  Lincoln  at 
Charleston.  Porterfield  was  still  at  Salisbury;  Ste 
vens  was  coming  on  from  Richmond  with  seven  hun 
dred  additional  Virginians ;  Baron  von  Kalbe  had 
two  thousand  Maryland  and  Delaware  Regulars  at 
Hillsboro;  and  Rutherford,  a  bold  western  com 
mander,  was  strengthening  himself  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Charlotte.  This  formidable  array  had  its 
influence  in  bringing  the  militia  into  service,  and  in 
counteracting  the  schemes  of  the  loyalists.  During 
this  second  season  of  enthusiasm,  and  before  the  fall 
of  Charleston,  a  company  was  made  up  in  Warren 
County,  which  Nathaniel  Macon  joined  as  a  volun 
teer  without  accepting  the  proffered  bounty  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  He  was  elected  lieu 
tenant,  but  this  he  also  declined,  preferring  to  serve 
as  a  private  in  the  ranks.  John  Macon,  then  a 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XIV.,  prefatory  notes  by  Judge  Clark. 


IN  THE  ARMY  AGAIN.  25 

prominent  member  of  the  General  Assembly  for 
Warren  county/  was  made  Captain,  a  suitable 
choice,  for  he  had  served  two  years  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war  as  a  captain  in  the  Regular  army,  and 
had  been  with  Washington  in  the  New  Jersey  cam 
paigns  and  at  Valley  Forge.2  This  new  com 
pany  became  a  part  of  a  regiment  made  up  of 
similar  companies  from  Nash,  Northampton,  Hali 
fax  and  Edgecombe  counties,  and  was  put  under  the 
command  of  Benjamin  Seawell.  Each  company 
marched  to  the  plantation  of  a  certain  William  Betts, 
in  Wake  County,  as  a  place  of  rendezvous.  At  this 
place  the  soldiers  were  to  receive  their  bounties  and 
the  regiment  was  to  be  organized;  but  the  govern 
ment  did  not  meet  its  obligations,  and  the  men  were 
about  to  return  to  their  homes.  Seawell  wrote  the 
Governor  that  his  soldiers  were  good  as  could  be 
found,  but  that  they  would  never  cross  the  borders 
of  the  State  unless  they  were  paid.3  Seawell  was 
to  have  joined  Simmer,  who  was  returning  from 
South  Carolina  with  a  small  command  of  North 
Carolina  troops,  somewhere  to  the  south  of  Hills- 
boro.  This  mutiny  of  the  whole  Halifax  regiment 
was  threatening  to  affect  seriously  the  plans  of 
attack,  and  Cornwallis  was  approaching.  Tt  was  now 
late  in  July.  How  the  difficulties  were  settled  we 
are  not  told,  but  some  satisfactory  plan  was 
arranged,  so  that  Seawell's  regiment  marched  on 
toward  the  South. 

General  Horatio  Gates,  whose  star  had  been  shin 
ing  so  brightly  since  the  victory  at  Saratoga,  was 
appointed  to  the  chief  command  of  the  Southern 
department,  to  succeed  Lincoln.  He  arrived  at  the 

*  N.  C.  State  Records,  XIII.,  Journals  of  the  Assembly. 

2  N.  C.  State  Records,  XIII.,  42. 

3  N.  C.  State  Records,  XV.,  8. 


26  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

camp  of  von  Kalbe,  on  Deep  River,  July  19,  where 
the  latter  was  drilling  his  regiments  of  Continentals, 
where  de  Armond's  legion  had  just  arrived;  and 
where  three  companies  of  artillery  had  fjeen  sent 
by  the  government.  Against  the  advice  of  von  Kalbe, 
who  had  been  in  the  neighborhood  some  months,  and 
who  knew  well  the  field  of  operations,  Gates  marched 
directly  toward  Camden,  where  Cornwallis  was  col 
lecting  his  detachments,  waiting  for  the  crops  to  be 
gathered  in,  and  attracting  to  him  what  Royalists 
could  escape  the  vigilance  of  Caswell  and  Ruther 
ford.  Soon  after  the  army  marched  southward  it 
was  reinforced  by  Porterfield's  three  hundred  Vir 
ginians,  Caswell's  new  levies  of  militia,  Steven's  bri 
gade  of  Virginians,  and  by  Sumner's  men,  strength 
ened  by  the  Halifax  regiment  under  Seawell — alto 
gether  four  thousand,  five  hundred  men.  Not  far 
away,  and  subject  to  Gates'  command,  was  Davie, 
with  three  hundred  as  good  men  as  could  be  found ; 
Rutherford's  troop  of  fifteen  hundred,  flushed  with 
a  magnificent  victory  over  the  Royalists,  was  at 
Ramsour's  Mill ;  Davidson,  with  some  hundred  and 
fifty  men  at  least,  and  Sumpter,  with  eight  hundred 
followers,  were  not  far  southward.  Marion  and 
Harrington  were  guarding  the  Tories  toward  the 
east  and  along  Cape  Fear,  while  Smallwood  and 
Butler  were  doing  the  same  on  the  Yadkin.  Without 
taking  into  account  these  last-named  forces,  which 
were  keeping  the  peace  in  the  above-named  disaf 
fected  regions,  Gates  could  have  brought  into  close 
cooperation  six  thousand,  five  hundred  soldiers,  most 
of  whom  had  seen  active  service,  and  who  were  led  by 
men  of  experience,  acquainted  with  the  country,  and 
who  enjoyed  the  absolute  confidence  of  their  follow 
ers.  It  was  an  opportunity  not  unlike  that  of  Sara 
toga  two  years  before:  the  militia  were  confident, 


IN  THE  ARMY  AGAIN.  27 

their  homes  were  about  to  be  invaded,  and  there  was 
a  large  population  ready  to  resist  to  the  last  extrem 
ity  the  encroachment  of  the  enemy.  On  the  side  of 
the  enemy,  everything  was  unfavorable,  almost  as 
much  so  as  with  Burgoyne,  when  the  farmers  of  the 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  hills  fell  upon  him 
with  such  disastrous  effect.  Cornwallis'  whole  army 
amounted  to  two  thousand,  five  hundred  men,  five 
hundred  of  whom  were  Tory  militia;  the  country 
was  unknown  to  its  leaders ;  the  climate  was 
extremely  oppressive ;  large  numbers  of  the  soldiers 
had  to  be  sent  each  day  to  the  hospital  in  the  rear, 
and  the  Royalist  uprising,  which  had  been  calculated 
upon  so  confidently,  was  not  succeeding.  The  one 
real  difficulty  with  which  Gates  contended  was  scar 
city  of  supplies,  the  difficulty  which  seems  to  have 
caused  him  to  hasten  on  to  Camden  through  the 
almost  barren  pine  forests  in  order  to  gain  time  and 
to  attack  the  enemy  before  his  provisions  were 
exhausted.  He  overrated  the  danger  of  scarcity  of 
provisions,  and  seems  never  once  to  have  thought  of 
the  difficulties  with  which  his  adversary  was  con 
tending.  Gates  hastened  towards  the  enemy's  camp 
in  the  hope  of  taking  Cornwallis  by  surprise,  and  in 
stead  of  making  sure  of  the  position  of  his  reinforce 
ments,  he  left  them  uninformed  of  the  whereabouts 
of  the  American  army.  On  August  16,  at  early 
dawn,  the  two  armies  met,  and  the  Americans,  who 
outnumbered  the  English  two  to  one,  were  scattered 
like  chaff  before  a  gust  of  wind.  Half  of  the  men 
never  so  much  as  fired  their  guns.  Gates  was  soon 
riding  in  all  haste  toward  Hillsboro,  as  much  fright 
ened  as  any  of  his  men.  Sumner  alone  appears  to 
have  kept  his  head,  and  maintained  something  like 
order  among  his  troops  after  the  day  was  lost:  he 
collected  what  remnants  could  be  found  of  the  scat- 


28  NATHANIEX   MACON. 

tered  commands,  and  attempted  to  bring  off  some 
of  the  supplies.1 

Not  a  word  has  been  found  anywhere  to  show 
what  share  Macon  had  in  the  battle  of  Camden.  He 
was,  however,  in  Seawall's  regiment  which  had 
united  with  Sumner  before  the  catastrophe,  and  so 
he  was  present  during  the  fight  and  did  not  run 
away  precipitately,  as  did  most  others.  Benton 
in  his  Thirty  Years  View2  says  Macon  was 
at  Camden ;  but  he  also  says  he  was  at  the  fall  of 
Charleston,  when  Macon's  own  statement  declares 
that  he  first  enlisted  May  10,  1780,  only  two 
days  before  the  fall.  Gotten  says  Macon  was  never 
in  an  active  engagement  during  the  war  but  at  the 
same  time  adds3  "that  we  are  informed."  The 
truth  appears  to  be  that  he  was  at  Camden  with 
his  company  and  retreated  with  Sumner  on  the  fol 
lowing  day  towards  Salisbury.4  A  report  of  Sep 
tember  3  shows  that  Colonel  Seawell's  Warren  and 
Halifax  companies  were  present.  September  29th 
Sumner's  army  was  in  good  spirits  again  and  in 
camp  on  the  Yadkin.  Two  thousand  British  occu 
pied  Charlotte,  while  forage  and  recruiting  expedi 
tions  were  scouring  the  country  in  all  directions. 
Hardly  a  day  passed  without  some  skirmish  or 
sharp  fight  between  such  commands  as  those  of 
Davie,  Cleveland,  and  McDowell,  which,  more  often 
than  otherwise,  resulted  in  favor  of  the  Americans.5 
These  small  successes  aided  materially  in  rallying 
the  scattered  forces  and  in  restoring  discipline  and 
confidence  among  the  few  remaining  companies. 

*  N.  C.  State  Records.  XV.,  49-55  ;  John  W.  Moore :  History  of  North 
Carolina,  I.,  277-281;  Washington  Irving:  Life  of  Washington,  IV.,  80-84. 

2  Thomas  H.  Benton  :  Thirty  Years  View,  I.,  114. 

3  See  above,  page  25. 

4  N.  C.  State  Records,  XV.,  73. 

5  N.  C.  State  Records,  XV.,  89. 


IN  THE;  ARMY  AGAIN.  29 

The  news  of  King's  Mountain,  October  10,  restored 
completely  the  esprit  de  corps  and  prepared  the  way 
for  General  Greene,  the  new  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Southern  Army. 

While  these  untoward  events  had  been  happen 
ing,  a  new  General  Assembly  had  been  elected ; 
Nathaniel  Macon  had  been  chosen  to  represent  War 
ren  county  in  the  Senate  for  the  year  1781.  The 
summons  of  the  Governor  to  attend  the  first  session, 
which  was  to  be  held  at  Halifax  in  January,  came 
and  w^as  read  to  the  soldiers  according  to  custom 
along  with  the  orders  of  the  commanding  general; 
but  Macon  gave  the  subject  no  attention,  preferring 
to  remain  in  the  ranks1.  Finally,  being  called  to 
the  tent  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  explain  his 
action,  Macon  modestly  announced  that  he  had  felt 
it  a  more  pressing  duty  to  remain  in  his  present 
position.  And  well  could  this  have  appeared  thus 
to  him  at  a  time  when  so  many  were  discouraged, 
when  the  militia  all  over  the  State  were  refusing  to 
serve  on  any  terms,  and  when  those  already  in  the 
army  were  returning  to  their  homes  as  fast  as  their 
terms  expired.  He  was  very  popular  as  a  soldier 
and  it  seems  that  he  commanded  an  influence  greater 
than  most  of  the  officers  themselves,  which  made  it 
the  more  imperative  from  his  point  of  view  for  him 
to  remain.  Much  has  been  said  of  this  apparently 
eccentric  behavior  of  Macon  on  the  assumption  that 
it  was  prompted  by  a  mean  motive  for  gaining 
popularity.  He  had  volunteered  without  accepting 
the  usual  bounty,  had  refused  an  officer's  rank  when 
his  company  was  organized ;  and  if  we  may  believe 
reports,  he  had  refused  promotion  again  when  Sea- 
well's  regiment  was  mutinying  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Raleigh.  Whether  he  had  particular  designs  all 

*  Thomas  H.  Bentoii  :  Thirty  Years  View,  I.,  114. 


30  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

along  could  hardly  be  ascertained.  There  is  no  way 
to  determine  the  motives  of  any  public  character  but 
by  his  public  acts,  which  in  Macon's  case,  if  taken 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  career,  seem  as 
thoroughly  consistent  with  unselfish  patriotism  as 
those  of  any  of  his  contemporaries  and  as  utterly 
without  design  so  far  as  he  himself  was  concerned. 
This  behavior  then  in  the  camp  on  the  Yadkin 
may  and  does  appear  eccentric  as  in  many  another 
instance  of  his  later  life ;  but  it  was  the  result  of  the 
conviction  that  duty  demanded  his  remaining  in  the 
army  in  preference  to  attending  the  legislature. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IN  THE:  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY,  1781-1785. 

Wheeler  claims1  in  one  place  that  Macon  was  first 
elected,  while  a  private  soldier  in  the  army,  to  a  seat 
in  the  Senate  for  the  year  1781  and  that  without 
his  knowledge  or  consent,  and,  in  another,2  he  states 
that  Macon  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from  War 
ren  county  in  1780.  Moore,  too,  claims  that  "he 
was  first  seen  in  a  deliberative  body  in  Newbern  in 
April,  I78o";3  and  Cotton  confidently  declares4  that 
"at  the  age  of  twenty-four  years,  whilst  he  was  yet 
in  the  army  his  countrymen  elected  Mr.  Macon  a 
member  of  the  legislature  of  his  State  without  his 
solicitation  or  even  his  knowledge."  Unfortunately 
the  records  of  the  Assembly  for  the  year  1780  have 
been  lost  and  we  are  left  to  decide  the  subject  for 
ourselves.  Wheeler  in  the  first  place  asserts  that 
the  first  election  of  Macon  to  the  Assembly  took 
place  while  he  was  in  the  army  and  we  have  Macon's 
own  written  statement5  that  he  enlisted  in  the  South 
ern  Army  May  12,  1780.  This  shows  that  if  he  was 
first  elected  while  in  the  army  he  could  not  have  been 
a  member  for  1780,  since  the  elections  were  held  in 
the  summer  and  for  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly 
for  the  succeeding  year.  But  to  illustrate  how  inac 
curate  and  untrustworthy  North  Carolina  history 

1  History  of  North  Carolina,  II.,  432. 

2  History  of  North  Carolina,  II.,  441. 

3  History  of  North  Carolina,  I.,  259. 

4  History  of  North  Carolina,  I.,  48. 

5  Better  to  General  Assembly,  Nov.  14,  1828. 


32  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

has  been  written,  let  us  note  the  inconsistencies  of 
statements  on  this  subject:  Wheeler  has  him 
"elected  first  while  in  the  army,"  and  further  on 
makes  him  a  member  a  year  before  that  time ;  Moore 
says,  "he  first  appeared  in  a  deliberative  body  in 
Newbern  in  April,  1780,"  adding,  at  the  same  time, 
that  he  was  a  private  in  one  of  the  Continental  regi 
ments  and  cites  Wheeler  as  his  authority,  which 
citation  proves  Macon  not  to  have  been  in  Newbern 
at  all ;  Cotton  says  Macon  was  twenty-four  years 
old  at  his  first  election,  which  took  place  in  the  pro 
verbial  manner,  namely,  without  his  knowledge  or 
consent  and  while  he  was  in  the  army.  The  truth 
is  Macon  was  not  in  Newbern,  not  a  member  of  the 
Senate  in  1780,  and  not  twenty- four  years  old;  but 
that  he  was  first  chosen,  perhaps  without  his  knowl 
edge,  to  represent  his  county  in  the  State  Senate  in 
the  summer  of  1780  for  the  session  of  1781  when  he 
was  away  on  that  fateful  Camden  campaign,  and 
when  he  was  just  twenty-one  years  old. 

Macon  did  not  leave  the  camp  on  the  Yadkin  in 
time  to  attend  the  first  session  of  the  Assembly  for 
1781,  which  met  at  Halifax  January  i8th;  but  he 
was  present  at  the  Wake  Court  House  session  in 
the  following  June,  and  from  that  time  on  till  his 
retirement  he  and  John  Macon  were  prominent 
members  of  the  legislature.  June  26th,  three  days 
after  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  Nathaniel  Macon 
of  the  Senate  and  John  Macon  of  the  House,  with 
several  others,  were  appointed  a  joint  committee  of 
both  houses  "to  settle  up  the  depreciation  of  money, 
etc."  John  Macon  was  made  Chairman  of  this 
important  committee.1  This  was  the  beginning  of  a 
reform  movement,  which  was  slow  in  being  real 
ized  on  account  of  the  infatuation  of  our  ancestors 
for  large  emissions  of  paper  money. 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVII.,  812. 


IN   THE   GENERAI,   ASSEMBLY.  33 

June  28th  Nathaniel  Macon  was  named  a  mem 
ber  of  a  committee  to  prepare  and  bring  in  a  bill 
for  establishing  courts  of  oyer  and  terminer.  The 
merchants  of  Edenton  petitioned  this  Assembly  for 
relief  from  illegal  impressment  of  produce  for  the 
Commissary  Department  of  the  army.  Macon, 
as  chairman  of  the  committee  to  which  the 
subject  was  referred,  reported  as  follows:  "The 
joint  Committee  of  both  houses  appointed  to  take 
under  Consideration  a  Memorial  from  the  merchants 
of  Edenton,  setting  forth  that  large  quantities  of 
Goods  were  impressed  from  them,  do  report  that  it 
is  Your  Committee's  opinion  that  the  impressment 
of  Goods  by  General  Warrants  is  unconstitutional, 
oppressive  and  destructive  to  Trade;  and  that  it 
also  appears  to  Your  Committee  that  no  demand  or 
requisition  has  been  made  to  the  Owners  of  such 
Goods  previous  to  the  Impressment  or  Seizure 
thereof,  which  is  illegal.  And  are  further  of  the 
opinion  that  all  Goods  so  impressed  that  can  be 
conveniently  spared1  from  the  use  of  the  Army,  be 
immediately  returned  to  the  Owners  from  which 
such  Goods  have  been  impressed  or  seized."2  Another 
joint  committee  was  appointed  June  28th,  to  inves 
tigate  the  conduct  of  public  officials,  especially  those 
who  had  been  entrusted  with  public  monies  and  to 
bring  in  a  bill  requiring  them  to  render  regular 
accounts  to  and  make  settlement  with  the  State. 
On  this  committee  were  associated  with  Macon 
Colonel  Jesse  Benton,  of  Hillsboro,  father  of  Sena 
tor  Benton,  Thomas  Person,  of  Granville,  Charles 
Johnston,  of  Chowan,  and  others,  most  of  whom 
w.ere  prominent  in  the  politics  of  the  State.  This 
committee  reported  a  bill  which  met  the  require- 

1  The  italics  are  the  authors. 

2  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVII.,  826. 

3 


34  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ments.  From  these  records  and  from  numberless 
others,  which  might  be  cited,  it  will  be  seen  that 
Macon,  though  one  of  the  youngest  members,  played 
a  conspicuous  part  in  the  Assembly  from  the  begin 
ning;  and  what  is  more  significant,  he  was  con 
stantly  associated  with  reform  men  and  measures. 
The  chief  object  of  his  attention  was  the  debased 
currency  which  he  insisted  should  be  remedied  by  a 
return  to  specie  payments. 

The  Assembly  of  1781  was  still  controlled  by  the 
more  democratic  Whigs  who  had  directed  the  affairs 
of  the  State  since  the  struggle  with  Johnston  and 
the  Conservatives  for  supremacy  in  the  Hillsboro 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1776;  but  the  reverses 
of  the  past  year,  the  increasing  power  of  the  Tories 
in  the  south  central  portion  of  the  State  and  the 
almost  universal  lawlessness  then  prevailing  had 
given  the  Conservatives  a  great  increase  of  strength. 
The  contest  between  parties  came  up  every  year  in 
the  election  of  Governor.  Nash,  who  had  been 
chosen  in  1779,  was  not  considered  successful 
chiefly  because  misfortune  had  come  while  he  was 
in  office.  The  rule  in  North  Carolina,  as  in  Vir 
ginia,  was  to  re-elect  a  Chief  Magistrate  giving 
him  the  limit  of  the  Constitution  as  to  duration  of 
his  term  of  service,  i.  e.,  three  years.  Nash  was 
not  re-elected  by  the  Assembly  of  1781  at  its  January 
meeting,  but  he  was  authorized  to  remain  in  office 
temporarily.  Yet,  according  to  English  and  American 
fashion,  he  was  complimented  for  his  great  ability 
and  devoted  patriotism  as  a  public 'servant.  In  the 
balloting  for  Governor  at  the  end  of  Nash's  first 
year  Samuel  Johnston  was  a  candidate.  Johnston 
was  not  chosen,  but  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the 
Continental  Congress,  which  latter  office  he  accepted, 
contrary  to  his  and  his  friend  Hooper's  previous 


IN   THE   GENERAL   ASSEMBLY.  35 

practice.  Benjamin  Hawkins,  who  was  leaning 
more  and  more  toward  the  Conservatives,  was  also 
chosen  a  delegate  to  Congress1.  This  indicates  the 
change  of  sentiment  which  began  about  this  time. 

From  a  military  point  of  view,  the  State  was 
in  a  deplorable  condition.  Nash's  message  to  the 
Assembly  at  its  second  session  in  June,  which  every 
one  seeking  to  understand  the  policies  and  meas 
ures  of  the  legislature  of  1781  must  read,  reviews  in 
a  forcible  manner  the  condition  of  affairs.  He  said 
in  part :  "Nothing  could  have  induced  me  to  call 
you  together  at  so  inconvenient  and  disagreeable  a 
season  of  the  year,  but  the  most  pressing  necessity. 
*  *  *  You  will  no  doubt  pay  a  proper  attention 
to  the  present  disordered  condition  of  this  unhappy 
State."  He  then  reviews  the  loss  at  Camden  and 
its  result,  adding:  "We  had  drained  the  Treasury, 
which  had  never  since  been  replenished  sufficiently 
even  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  Government,  and 
what  is  still  worse,  Terror  and  Consternation, 
which  on  this  unhappy  occasion  was  spread  through 
the  Country,  by  the  multitudes  who  fled  from  the 
Field  of  Battle,  discouraged  the  friends  of  Govern 
ment  in  proportion  as  it  gave  new  life  and  spirits  to 
the  disaffected"  *  *  *.  Then  follows  a  recital 
of  the  withdrawal  of  power  from  the  Governor  and 
the  vesting  it  first  in  a  Board  of  War  and  later  in 
General  Richard  Caswell,  his  rival,  and  the  miserr 
able  drafting  practice.  The  message  concluded: 
"In  short,  this  kind  of  service,  carried  to  the  dis 
grace  we  have  seen  it  of  late  years,  is  productive  of 
every  kind  of  evil  Consequence.  Public  and  Private 
Arms  and  Accoutrements  are  lost;  Household  and 
Husbandry  Utensils,  Horses  and  other  things  use 
ful  to  the  farmer  are  wrested  from  the  owner  and 

*  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVII.,  858,  872. 


86  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

never  returned,*  *  *;  the  cultivation  of  land, 
so  particularly  necessary  in  time  of  War,  is  inter 
rupted  and  neglected."1  Such  a  state  of  affairs  had 
been  enough  to  alarm  the  strongest,  and  it  was 
not  surprising  that  the  Royalists  were  rising  in  all 
parts  of  the  State,  that  the  Revolutionary  party  was 
discouraged  and  that  the  Conservatives  who  had  all 
along  occupied  the  position  of  public  critics,  men 
accustomed  to  say  "we  told  you  so,"  but  who,  never 
theless,  with  a  few  exceptions,  had  held  the  first 
civil  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  Assembly,  who  had 
drawn  good  salaries  and  never  smelt  the  smoke  of 
gun  powder,  were  now  gaining  in  influence  and 
about  to  get  control  of  the  government.  From  1776 
until  after  the  battle  of  Camden,  WilHc!  Jones  and 
his  party  of  Democratic  republicans,  the  northern 
section  of  the  State,  with  counties  here  and 
there  in  the  eastern  and  western  sections  coop 
erating,  had  controlled  affairs  in  North  Carolina 
and  directed  its  policy  in  all  things.  But  by  way 
of  conciliation,  this  dominant,  positive  party  had 
kept  continually  in  office  most  of  the  dissatisfied 
Conservatives — the  price  that  had  to  be  paid  for  the 
loyalty  of  many  of  the  wealthy  Easterners. 

At  the  Wake  Court  House  session  the  Democratic 
Republicans,  or  Whigs,  maintained  their  position, 
but  they  felt  the  reins  of  power  slipping  from  their 
hands  more  rapidly,  as  the  military  affairs  grew 
more  hopeless ;  for  the  battle  of  Guilford  Court 
House,  which  had  taken  place  two  months  before, 
was  not  a  source  of  encouragement  to  North  Caro 
linians  in  that  day  as  it  has  since  become.  It  was 
not  regarded  as  a  victory,  neither  did  the  Governor 
nor  Assembly  thank  Greene  for  his  part  in  it.  They 
did  not  expect  Cornwallis  to  leave  the  State  never 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVI£  ,  881-882. 


IN   THE   GENERAL   ASSEMBLY.  37 

to  return,  nor  had  any  one  the  remotest  idea  that 
the  victory  at  Yorktown  was  to  be  the  result  of 
Guilford  Court  House. 

The  principal  measures  of  the  Assembly  of  1781 
looked  to  the  reform  of  the  military  organization, 
the  suppression  of  disaffection,  confiscation  of  the 
property  of  those  who  had  committed  themselves  to 
the  Royalist  cause,  reform  of  the  currency,  and  cor 
rection  of  the  abuse  of  power  in  office  and  even  the 
improvements  of  the  courts  of  common  law.  The 
military  reforms  were  soon  rendered  unnecessary 
by  the  news  of  Cornwallis'  overthrow ;  the  finan 
cial  situation  had  not  improved,  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  quotation  from  the  journals  of 
the  House :  "This  House  can  not  agree  that  any 
larger  Sum  be  allowed  the  members  of  Assembly, 
more  than  Five  Hundred  Dollars  per  day  for  going 
to,  continuing  at  and  in  returning"  from  the  session 
which  was  to  have  been  held  at  Newbern  in  April 
last;  Five  Hundred  Dollars  per  day  for  coming  to 
and  returning  from  the  present  session  and  Two 
Hundred  and  Fifty  Dollars  per  day  for  attending 
thereon.1  And  this  financial  demoralization  grew 
steadily  worse  until  it  became  a  disease  in  spite  of 
the  efforts  of  the  best  men  in  the  State.  The  abuse 
of  power  by  State  officials  did  not  cease  until  the 
coming  of  peace  destroyed  the  opportunity  for  it; 
the  habit  of  confiscating  the  property  of  Tories  also 
became  a  disease,  a  disease  which  was  constantly 
spreading,  since  so  many  people,  toward  the 
latter  part  of  the  war,  had  joined  the  British  or 
grown  lukewarm  in  their  support  of  the  American 
cause.  The  courts  were  not  finally  reorganized  till 
the  Supreme  Court  was  established  in  1818.  In  all 
these  movements  the  Macons  were  prominent,  gener 
ally  following  the  lead  of  Willie  Jones. 

*  N  C.  State  Records,  XVII.,  862 


NATHANIEL   MACON. 

No  man  has  ever  wielded  more  power  in  the 
management  of  the  State's  affairs  than  Willie  Jones, 
of  Halifax,  yet  not  two  dozen  lines  about  his  life 
and  work  have  ever  been  published.  He  kept  the 
State  true  to  the  policy  outlined  by  Virginia  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Revolution  and  prevailed  on  the 
Halifax  Constitutional  Convention  to  adopt  a  con 
stitution  to  his  liking,  i.  e.,  a  constitution  essentially 
similar  to  that  of  Virginia.  Jones  was  a  Virginian 
reformer  after  the  pattern  of  Jefferson,  whom  he 
came  to  admire  as  he  did  no  other  living  man. 

In  this  school  of  politics  Nathaniel  Macon  served 
his  apprenticeship ;  and  his  later  career  shows  how 
faithfully  he  listened  and  learned ;  while  his  own 
course,  during  the  first  year  of  his  experience  in  the 
legislature,  shows  how  thoroughly  he  agreed  with 
the  policy  of  his  teacher  and  endorsed  the  Virginia 
reforms  so  generally  approved  in  his  section  of 
North  Carolina — the  old  "Southside  of  Roanoke." 

The  journals  of  the  Assembly  for  the  years  1782, 
'83  and  '84  have  been  destroyed,  with  the  exception 
of  those  of  the  House  for  1782,  which  show  that 
three  Macons,  John,  Harrison,  and  Nathaniel,  all 
brothers,  were  members :  Nathaniel  in  the  Senate 
and  John  and  Harrison  in  the  House.1  John  was 
by  far  the  most  active,  serving  on  the  most  impor 
tant  committees  and  presenting  lengthy  reports. 
He  also  took  active  part  as  a  partisan  of  Timothy 
Bloodworth  in  an  election  case  which  was  brought 
up  by  Alexander  MacLaine  of  Wilmington.  Blood- 
worth  was  supposed  to  be  in  favor  of  violent  meas 
ures  against  the  Tories ;  he  had  been  Treasurer  of 
the  State  at  the  time  of  his  election,  which,  Mac 
Laine  claimed,  made  his  choice  unconstitutional. 
MacLaine  was  a  member  of  the  Conservative  party 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVI.,  3,  23,  and  34. 


IN    THE   GENERA^    ASSEMBLY.  39 

and  his  correspondence  shows  he  was  making  a 
strenuous  effort  as  an  attorney  for  some  wealthy 
refugees,  especially  for  George  Hooper  of  Charles 
ton,  brother  of  William  Hooper,  to  have  the  Tories 
restored  to  their  former  political  status.  Blood- 
worth  won,  and  with  him  the  extremists  on  the 
Tory  question.  Nathaniel  Macon  belonged  to  the 
same  party  and,  as  it  appears  from  his  correspond 
ence  with  Jefferson  in  1801,  he  favored  harsh  treat 
ment  of  those  who  supported  the  British  during  the 
war.1 

The  principal  measures  before  the  legislature  in 
'82  were  the  fixing  of  relations  between  the  State 
and  the  so-called  National  Government ;  the  treat 
ment  of  the  Tories  was  referred  to;  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  trade  and  the  improvement  of  the  cur 
rency.  Nathaniel  Macon  was  appointed  a  member 
of  the  committee  to  take  into  consideration  the  rec 
ommendations  of  the  Governor  on  the  resolves  of 
Congress.2  Since  there  was  no  compulsory  power 
vested  in  the  Continental  Congress,  and  now  that 
war  no  longer  made  vigorous  cooperation  neces 
sary,  the  recommendations  of  the  Governor  "died  in 
committee."  Macon  was  not  the  man  to  urge 
National  measures.  On  the  subject  of  a  National 
trade,  he  was  likewise  an  indifferent  member,  not 
so  much  for  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  efforts  then 
making  for  its  reestablishment,  but  because  of  his 
ardent  local  patriotism.  He  favored  State  control 
of  commerce  and  industry.  Thus  protection,  of  one 
sort  or  another,  was  being  proposed  by  his  party  as 
a  policy  for  North  Carolina,  though  it  was  some 
years  later  before  a  protective  and  bounty-giving 
system  was  evolved.  Macon  was  a  protectionist  in 

*  Loiter  of  May  24,  1801 

«  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVI.,  23. 


40  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

North  Carolina  always.  But  his  attitude  toward 
the  currency  question  was  more  characteristic,  and 
on  that  subject  his  views  were  in  advance  of  those 
of  most  of  his  fellows;  his  opinions  remaining  the 
same  throughout  his  political  life,  whether  applied 
to  National  or  State  issues,  namely,  that  only  a 
metallic  currency  was  safe  and  just. 

From  1782  to  1786  nothing  is  known  of  his  career 
in  politics  save  that  he  was  an  active  member  of 
the  Senate  and  an  opponent  of  the  rising  influence 
of  the  Conservatives,  chief  amongst  whom  were 
Samuel  Johnston,  James  Iredell,  William  Hooper, 
and  Alexander  MacLaine.  This  party,  as  has  been 
observed,  had  begun  to  steer  its  course  in  1776  after 
the  establishment  of  the  State  constitution.  During 
the  war  it  had  exerted  considerable  influence,  and 
at  its  close  it  championed  the  cause  of  the  Tories, 
and  as  things  tended  to  extre.mes,  it  became 
stronger.  Washington  was  claimed  as  its  leader 
outside  of  the  State  as  early  as  1782.  Alexander 
Martin,  Timothy  Bloodworth  and  General  Griffith 
Rutherford,  with  others  of  the  Jones  party,  were 
designated  by  epithets  which  would  scarcely  be 
admissible  now  in  the  most  violent  political  cam 
paigns.  Rutherford  was  "that  bloodthirsty  old 
scoundrel"  and  Martin  an  "arrant  coward  without 
the  sense  of  a  woodcock."  The  Conservatives  advo 
cated  Johnston  for  Governor  during  these  years; 
but  by  way  of  compromise  between  the  two  parties 
Richard  Caswell  was  several  times  elected.  The 
question  of  National  Union  was  scarcely  mentioned 
during  this  war  period,  and  the  debt  of  more  than 
a  million  to  the  General  Government  was  not  trouble 
some,  to  say  the  least.1 

*  N.  C.  State  Recoids,  XVI.,  930  on  :  Hooper  Machine  correspond 
ence. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FOUNDING  A  HOME,  1782-1791. 

In  1782  Nathaniel  Macon  fell  a  victim  to  the 
charms  of  a  very  handsome  lady  of  Warren,  who 
bore  the  somewhat  homely  name  of  Hannah;  she 
was  a  Miss  Plummer,  and  her  parents,  like  Macon's, 
were  Virginians,  and,  what  meant  much  in  those 
days,  well  connected.  Gotten  says  Macon  was 
handsome,  too ;  six  feet  tall,  perfectly  proportioned, 
of  a  fine  presence,  urbane  of  manner  and  an 
extravagant  admirer  of  womankind — also  the 
admired,  he  occasionally  hints.1  Nevertheless,  he  did 
not  have  things  all  his  own  way,  if  we  may  accept, 
as  truth,  stories  which  still  circulate  in  the  old  town 
of  Warrenton.  According  to  one  of  which,  when 
matters  had  come  to  a  crisis,  so  far  as  Macon  was 
concerned,  Miss  Hannah  Plummer  was  still  receiv 
ing  attentions  from  some  other  suitor,  whose  name, 
happily,  has  not  been  preserved  to  us.  The  two 
competitors  met  on  one  occasion  at  the  Plummer 
home,  and  Macon,  who  was  a  dexterous  card-player 
suggested  that  Miss  Hannah  be  the  prize.  The 
offer  was  accepted,  with  the  result  that  Macon  lost. 
"He  immediately  arose,  raised  high  both  hands  and, 
with  his  eyes  fixed  on  Hannah,  and  sparkling  with 
beams  of  affection,  exclaimed :  'notwithstanding  I 
have  lost  you  fairly — love  is  superior  to  honesty — I 
can  not  give  you  up.'  "2  It  is  needless  to  add  that 
he  won  the  lady. 

i  Cotten's  Life  of  Macon,  51-52.  3  Ibid  ,  55-56. 


42  NATHANIEL   MACdN. 

Macon  and  Miss  Plummer  were  married  October 
9th,  1783,  and  they  made  their  home  on  Hubquarter 
Creek,  twelve  miles  north  of  Warrenton,  near  the 
Roanoke.  It  was  the  place  which  had  been  given 
him  by  his  father's  will.  Some  five  or  six  hundred 
acres  of  land  surrounding  the  house  constituted  his 
estate;  it  was  the  nucleus  of  the  plantation  of  later 
years.  There  was  hardly  a  settlement  within  five 
miles,  and  he  had  preferred  this  to  the  far  more  valu 
able  lands  which  had  been  given  him  on  Shocco  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  best  community  in  that  section 
of  the  State.  It  shows  another  of  those  eccentric 
tendencies  of  the  man,  this  preference  for  the  wild 
forests,far  removed  from  his  relatives  and  associates. 
It  is  an  oft-quoted  saying  of  his  in  North  Carolina, 
that  "a  man  should  not  live  near  enough  his  neigh 
bors  to  hear  his  dogs  bark."  There,  not  far  from 
the  Roanoke  River,  and  on  a  small  hilltop,  with  tne 
help  of  a  carpenter  and  his  negro  slaves  he  had 
cleared  away  the  forest  trees  and  built  a  new  house ; 
it  is  still  standing  and  in  a  perfect  state  of  preser 
vation — the  most  remarkable  in  America.  The 
house,  which  the  negroes  no  doubt  called  the 
"  great  house,"  is  sixteen  feet  square,  one  story 
and  a  half  high,  with  a  well-arranged  wine 
cellar  underneath.  Two  doors,  directly  opposite 
each  other,  and  two  small  windows,  almost  six  feet 
above  the  floor,  furnished  sufficient  ventilation. 
It  need  not  be  said  that  there  are  only  two 
rooms  in  the  house,  one  down,  the  other  up-stairs. 
A  very  narrow,  winding  stairway  leads  up  from  one 
corner  of  the  lower  room.  In  each  room  there  is 
an  ample,  well-finished  open  fireplace,  and  in  every 
part  of  the  house  the  very  best  workmanship  is  mani 
fested  ;  the  whole  is  built  of  "heart  poplar"  lumber 
and  finished  in  the  best  style.  The  ceiling  is  of  the 


FOUNDING  A  HOME:.  4:3 

same  material  as  the  outside  work  and  finished  in 
the  same  way,  except  that  for  some  unknown  rea 
son,  the  finished  planks  were  turned  upside  down — 
that  is,  just  the  reverse  from  what  we  ordinarily 
term  weatherboarding.  In  front  of  the  building 
just  described  is  another — an  exact  counterpart, 
except  the  chimney  is  larger  and  the  fireplaces  are 
twice  as  wide.  By  the  side  of  the  fireplace  in  the 
lower  room  is  the  great  crane,  used  in  former  days 
for  swinging  on  and  off  pots  and  kettles  of  no  small 
dimensions.  This  second  house  was  the  kitchen, 
but  it  served  also  as  the  family  sitting-room.  Up 
stairs  in  it  is  a  neatly  finished  room,  which,  it  is 
said,  was  the  sleeping  apartment  of  his  daughters. 
Between  these  houses  was  the  carriage  and  wagon 
road  connecting  different  parts  of  the  plantation  and 
also  leading  out  between  barns  and  through  horse 
lots  into  a  winding  country  pathway  that  led  finally 
into  the  Warrenton  and  Virginia  road.  Around  the 
"great  house" — Mr.  Macon's  own  apartments — at  a 
distance  of  some  fifty  yards,  are  the  remains  on  the 
one  side  of  dozens  of  Negro  cabins,  and  on  the  other 
of  barns  for  horses,  cattle,  hay  and  tobacco.  This 
gives,  at  least  in  part,  a  picture  of  the  once  well 
known  "Buck  Spring,"  home  of  Nathaniel  Macon 
of  North  Carolina. 

During  the  following  years  Macon  was  increas 
ing  his  fortune  steadily  though  not  rapidly.  Tobacco 
growing  was  his  occupation  and  farming  was  not 
then,  as  it  is  not  now,  a  means  of  great  wealth.  A 
tax  list  which  has  been  preserved1  indicates  that 
he  owned  in  1792  seven  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of 
land  and  "14  black  poles,"  which  shows  that  some 
additions  to  his  plantation  had  been  made,  and  that 

1  In  possession  of  Thomas  M.  Pittman,  Esq.,  of  Henderson,  N.  C.,  an 
indefatigable  collector  of  North  Caroliniana. 


44  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

the  number  of  negroes  had  been  increased  consider 
ably,  taking  his  early  patrimony  as  a  beginning. 
Negro  men  were  at  that  time  rated  at  two  hundred 
pounds  in  specie,1  that  is,  about  four  hundred  dol 
lars  each.  A  fair  estimate  would  make  his  estate 
worth  between  three  and  four  thousand  dollars  in 
the  money  of  that  day,  which  was  equivalent  to  twice 
that  amount  in  our  own  time. 

Macon's  position  in  North  Carolina  during  this 
period  of  retirement  is  shown  by  his  election  to  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1786  for  the  eventful  year 
of  1787  and  by  his  appointment  a  year  later  to  the 
office  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Warren  county 
militia.  The  first  position  he  declined  to  accept  on 
the  ground  of  insufficient  or  unsatisfactory  remu 
neration2  which  was  inconsistent  with  his  former 
practice.  The  real  reason,  no  doubt,  was  his  dis 
like-  for  the  Continental  service.  It  was  the  year 
of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  to  which  he  was 
opposed  in  toto.  His  friend  and  neighbor,  Willie 
Jones,  refused  about  the  same  time  to  represent 
North  Carolina  in  this  Convention.  His  excuse  was 
no  better  than  Macon's.  The  second  honor  con 
ferred  by  the  General  Assembly  was  more  to  his 
liking;  he  accepted  and  met  regularly  with  the 
county  militia  to  train  them  in  the  arts  of  war.3 

There  is  an  old  leather-bound  Bible  now  in  the 
possession  of  Miss  Laura  Alston,  of  Warrenton, 
which  speaks  much  for  this  period  of  Macon's  life. 
The  following  entries  in  Macon's  handwriting 
appear:  "Betsey  Kemp  Macon,  born  September  12, 
1784;  Plummer  Macon,  born  April  I4th,  1786; 
Seignora  Macon,  born  November  I5th,  1787;  Han- 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVI.,  77. 

a  N.  C.  State  Records,  vol.  XX.,  605. 

3  N.  C.  State  Records,  vol.  XX.,  293,  461. 


FOUNDING  A   HOME.  45 

nah  Macon  died  January  nth,  1790;  Plummer 
Macon  died  July  26th,  1792."  The  death  of  his 
wife,  which  is  here  recorded,  was  a  blow,  from 
which  Macon  never  recovered.  He  never  married 
again,  though  he  was  only  thirty- two  years  old  at 
the  time  of  her  death.  It  is  said  that  he  was  devot 
edly  attached  to  her,  and  his  long  unmarried  life 
afterwards  is  a  testimony  to  the  faithfulness  of  the 
man.  It  was  not  unlike  Jefferson's  life  of  devo 
tion  and  romantic  obedience  to  a  wife,  who  left  him 
a  widower  at  a  comparatively  early  age.  The 
remains  of  Mrs.  Macon  were  buried  not  many  yards 
from  the  husband's  house  on  the  borders  of  the  yard. 
Plummer  Macon,  his  only  son,  was  little  more  than 
six  years  old,  when  he,  too,  was  taken  away,  about  a 
year  and  a  half  after  the  mother's  death.  .It  was 
the  breaking  up  of  a  happy  home,  these  two  afflic 
tions,  and,  from  that  time  on,  the  father  was  con 
stantly  in  politics,  and  consequently  away  from 
home.  What  arrangements  were  made  for  the  two 
girls,  Betsey  and  Seignora,  for  their  training  and 
education,  the  author  has  been  unable  to  learn. 
Apparently  they  remained  at  Buck  Spring  in  the 
care  of  some  relative. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE;  ADOPTION  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION  BY 
NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Something  has  been  said  of  the  Conservatives  in 
North  Carolina  during  the  Revolution,  their  dissat 
isfaction  with  the  Constitution  of  1776,  their  dispo 
sition  to  remain  neutral,  their  friendliness  at  the 
close  of  the  war  toward  the  Tories  and  their  grow 
ing  influence  during  the  early  years  of  peace.  There 
is  no  need  here  of  designating  by  name  these  lead 
ers,  the  most  important  of  whom  have  been  men 
tioned1.  They  represented  the  wealthier  class  of 
Eastern  slave  holders,  some  of  whom  had  openly 
sided  with  England;  others  had  joined  the  Revo 
lutionists,  but  had  not  approved  of  the  ultra  Demo 
cratic  measures  of  1776,  and  became  lukewarm  in 
their  allegiance.  They  represented,  too,  the  mercan 
tile  interests  of  Wilmington,  Newbern  and  Edenton ; 
many  of  them  had  been  English  or  New  England 
merchants  and  were  not,  of  course,  disposed  to 
sacrifice  their  occupation  for  the  service  of  ideals 
in  advance  of  anything  Europe  had  seen.  They 
were  the  most  respectable  men  in  their  neighbor 
hoods.  When  the  war  was  ended  and  independence 
was  an  assured  thing,  they  began  to  reckon  with 
the  new  order  of  things.  The  extremists  of  1776 
had  found  it  a  more  difficult  thing  than  had  been  an 
ticipated  to  control  a  State  or  direct  the  affairs  of  a 
people  and  were  disposed  all  along  to  admit  to  office 

*  Sec  above,  pages  41,  44. 


ADOPTION  OF  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  47 

the  men  whose  administrative  experience  was 
greater  than  their  zeal  for  the  cause  of  popular 
rights.  When  the  strain  was  relieved  and  patriotic 
fervor  again  had  a  free  course,  those  who  had  openly 
opposed  the  war  were  severely  enough  handled. 
The  Royalists  were  banished  and  their  property 
confiscated;  no  nice  distinctions  were  made  as  to 
degrees  of  disaffection — to  have  been  neutral  at 
such  a  time  as  1780  was  especially  reprehensible, 
and  the  more  so  if  the  suspected  man  owned  consid 
erable  property1. 

The  wealthier  classes  felt  that  the  rights  of  prop 
erty  were  in  danger,  that  passion  and  prejudice  were 
going  to  be  the  controlling  elements  in  the  new 
State  organization.  They  began  at  once  to  urge 
their  leaders  to  make  decided  efforts  in  favor  of 
property  rights  and  "men  of  connections."  Organ 
ized  effort  followed,  and  the  old  East  sought 
again  to  wrest  from  the  North  and  the  West  the 
reins  of  power.2  Johnston  and  Iredell  were  the 
leaders.  The  mistake  they  made  was  the  too  vigor 
ous  support  both  in  the  courts  and  in  the  Assem 
bly  of  the  Loyalists — the  wealthier  of  them. 
Extreme  measures  of  persecution  on  the  part  of  the 
Radicals  begot  in  the  Conservatives  a  spirit  of 
extreme  favoritism,  which,  for  the  time,  defeated 
their  plan  of  regaining  control  of  affairs.  But 
according  to  the  old  conciliatory  policy  of  the 
'"Whigs  of  '76,"  as  they  now  began  to  call  them 
selves,  their  opponents  were  sent  to  the  Congress3  of 
the  Confederation,  where  they  soon  became  Nation 
alists — "Great  American"  as  against  "Small  Ameri 
can,"  as  the  Germans  would  express  it.  For  Eng 
land,  the  King  and  a  general  government,  which 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVI,.  9?8-979-  3  See  above,  page  42. 

a  Ibid,  992. 


4B  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

could  protect  the  interests  of  trade  and  reward  the 
services  of  men  of  talent  and  means,  they  would  sub 
stitute  United  America.  They  became  Americans, 
not  North  Carolinians.  And  what  added  to  this  sen 
timent  was  the  indifference  of  State  Supremacy  men 
to  the  claims  of  property ;  most  men  in  North  Caro 
lina  refused,  to  pay  debts  contracted  with  the  British 
prior  to  1776,  claiming  that  the  war  annulled  them; 
Jefferson  himself  and  Henry  apologized  for  this 
disposition  and  sometimes  openly  encouraged  it; 
and,  in  fact,  until  now,  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
this  had  been  the  customary  treatment  of  the  van 
quished  party  in  all  great  struggles. 

The  debts  of  the  United  States,  contracted  dur 
ing  the  War  for  Independence,  were  likewise 
ignored  by  the  dominant  party  in  North  Carolina. 
In  vain  did  Charles  Thompson,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Congress,  and  Joseph  Nourse,  Registrar,  send 
to  the  Assembly  their  accounts  against  the  State. 
The  millions  of  debt,  which  these  bills  called  to  the 
minds  of  our  forefathers,  did  not  cause  them  any 
uneasiness.  A  few  empty  resolutions  were  passed 
by  the  Houses,  but  nobody  attempted  to  enforce 
them.  North  Carolina  owed  the  Union  in  1785 
more  than  a  million  dollars  in  interest  alone  on  the 
debt  contracted  during  the  war,  but  she  did  not  pay 
a  cent  of  it1 ;  it  really  could  not  be  paid,  in  specie, 
as  was  demanded,  when  there  was  so  little  money 
in  the  State:  Whether  the  Assembly  meant  to  pay 
these  debts  to  the  former  Union,  for  there  was  none 
in  1785,  can  not  be  determined.  A  few  years  later 
regular  installments  of  tobacco  were  bought  by  the 
State  and  sent  to  Philadelphia,  so  that  slowly  the 
debt  began  to  be  provided  for,  though  this  was  so 
feebly  done  by  all  the  States  that  American  credit 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVII.,  534-535. 


ADOPTION  OF  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  4:9 

abroad  was  not  sufficiently  good  to  prevent  our  Min 
ister  in  Holland  from  being  dunned  for  his  hotel 
bills. 

Something  else  which  added  to  the  strength  of 
the  Nationalists  was  the  increasing  jealousy  of  the 
States  toward  each  other,  and  the  continuous  war  of 
trade  which  was  going  on.  Virginia  and  Mary 
land  were  laying  duties  on  each  other's  products ; 
in  New  York  spring  chickens  from  New  Jersey 
were  taxed  fifty  per  cent  in  favor  of  the  farmers  up 
the  Hudson;  and  a  cord  of  wood  from  Connecticut 
could  not  be  delivered  at  one's  back  door  without 
paying  its  tax  to  the  custom's  officer.1  Jealousy, 
retaliation  and  State  pride  were  giving  rise  to  a  state 
of  affairs  like  that  which  overthrew  the  mediaeval 
empire  of  the  Germans  at  the  time  of  Luther.  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia,  even,  were  quarrelling  about 
the  subject  of  tariff  in  1786,  and  Governor  Henry 
and  the  legislature  of  Virginia  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  meet  with  a  committee  from  North  Caro 
lina  to  settle  these  trade  difficulties.2 

Before  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  and  before 
it  was  know  what  would  be  the  status  of  America 
as  guaranteed  by  the  States  of  Europe,  MacLaine, 
Johnston  and  others  began  to  designate  Washington 
as  the  leader  of  the  conservative  forces  in  America.3 
And  there  was  no  wiser  counsel  given  to  the  leaders 
of  the  different  States  during  all  these  anarchic 
years  of  1783  to  1789  than  that  in  Washington's 
famous  letter  to  the  Governors.  It  was  at  once 
made  the  platform  of  all  those  who  desired  a  closer 
union  of  all  the  States ;  and,  connecting  together  all 
the  ills  to  which  the  past  few  years  had  shown  the 

1  John  Fiske:  Critical  Period  of  American  History,  146  147. 

2  N.  C.  State  Records.,  XVII.,  542,  658. 

3  MacLaine  to  Hooper,  State  Records,  XVI.,  974. 

4 


50  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

country  liable  in  1787,  these  conservative  men,  whose 
number  had  been  increasing  as  the  States  Rights 
party  became  consolidated,  as  the  ills  of  State 
independence  became  more  patent,  succeeded  in 
getting  a  convention  of  all  the  States  together — 
the  Philadelphia  Convention.  A  contract  of  com 
promises  was  arranged  and  the  different  States  were 
called  on  to  ratify  this  contract  and  to  become  mem 
bers,  each  of  a  central  government,  which  should  at 
least  control  the  commercial  interests  of  all  for 
eign  relations,  and  remedy  the  intolerable  ills  of  a 
rag  money  system. 

Samuel  Johnston,  an  advocate  of  this  Nationalist 
policy,  became  Governor  of  North  Carolina  in  1788. 
He  had  been  the  perennial  candidate  of  his  party 
since  1780  and  consequently  there  was  a  great  jubi 
lee  at  his  inauguration1.  The  elevation  of  Johnston 
to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  State  meant  much 
for  the  adoption  of  the  National  Constitution.  A 
call  for  a  convention  to  consider  the  new  constitu 
tion  was  issued  and  the  election  set  for  April.  As 
great  a  fight  between  the  advocates  and  opponents 
of  adoption  followed  as  has  ever  taken  place  in  the 
State,  with  the  result  that  a  great  majority  of  mem 
bers  opposing  adoption  was  chosen.  The  conven 
tion  met  and  rejected  the  plan  of  National  union  by 
a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  against 
eighty-four,  and  Willie  Jones,  Thomas  Person,  Tim 
othy  Bloodworth  and  John  Macon  returned  home 
rejoicing.  The  struggle  which  had  just  closed  had 
been  waged  in  a  spirit  of  bitter  animosity.  Wash 
ington  was  unmercifully  abused,  and  others,  who 
favored  a  National  government  of  practical  powers, 
were  termed  Tories,  conspirators  against  the  com 
mon  good. 

i  William  R.  DAVIC  to  James  Iredell,  Jan.  11,  1788. 


ADOPTION  OF  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  51 

This  shows  that,  during  the  years  1782  to  1788, 
the  spirit  of  particularism,  the  party  of  State  inde 
pendence  as  against  National  union,  had  been  grow 
ing  stronger  instead  of  weaker.  This  party  was 
still  led  by  the  redoubtable  politician,  Willie  Jones 
of  Halifax,  a  man  of  extraordinary  mould,  an  aris 
tocrat  in  all  that  pertained  to  his  personal  and  every 
day  life,  a  representative  of  one  of  the  oldest  fami 
lies  in  the  State;  yet  a  Democrat  of  the  most  pro 
nounced  views  in  public  policy,  a  man  whom  more 
men  feared  and  loved,  who  was  the  object  of  more 
hatred  and  more  adoration  than  has  ever  since  lived 
in  North  Carolina.  Thomas  Person,  from  Gran- 
ville,  John  Macon,  a  man  of  similar  character  in 
every  respect  to  Jones,  Thomas  Benbury  of  Chowan, 
the  Bloodworth  brothers  of  New  Hanover,  Matthew 
Locke  and  General  Rutherford  of  the  west,  were 
acknowledged  followers  of  Jones.  Their  policy 
demanded  (i)  a  free  and  absolutely  independent 
State,  (2)  a  genuinely  democratic  administration, 
(3)  a  general  improvement  in  educational  advan 
tages  for  the  people. 

To  secure  the  first  of  these,  they  advocated  a  rejec 
tion  of  all  plans  of  union  with  other  States,  the 
building  up  of  an  industry  which  would  not  only 
supply  our  own  demands,  but  which  should  enter 
into  competition  with  the  other  States  in  their  mar 
kets.  Flour  packers  were  required  to  observe  strict 
regulations,  both  as  to  the  grade  of  their  products 
and  as  to  the  manner  of  shipment.1  When  crops 
were  short  in  certain  sections,  the  Assembly  passed 
remedial  laws ;  when  a  general  shortage  was  antici 
pated,  exports  were  forbidden.  It  was  the  govern 
or's  business  to  enquire  into  the  condition  of  crops 
and  report  to  the  Assembly;  he  recommended  im- 

1  N.  C.  I,aws,  1791.  I.,  13. 


52  NATHANIEX   MACON. 

provement  in  agriculture  and  suggested  bounties  on 
manufacturers.  The  State  began  now  regularly  to 
give  bounties  to  all  beginners  of  new  manufacturing 
establishments,  and  entered  into  co-partnership  with 
individuals  and  with  companies  for  the  building  of 
canals  and  the  deepening  of  harbors,  the  improve 
ment  of  public  highways  and  the  advancement  of 
public  intercourse — a  policy  almost  identical  with 
that  of  Henry  Clay  fifty  years  later.1 

For  securing  the  second  primal  feature  of  their 
policy,  they  adhered  to  the  letter  of  the  Constitution 
of  1776  and  its  Bill  of  Rights,  both  of  which  they 
succeeded  in  so  canonizing  that  they  remained  unal 
tered  and  in  full  force  until  a  still  more  Democratic 
wave  from  the  West  came  over  the  State  in  1835. 
They  advocated,  for  the  same  purpose,  the  cruel 
measures  against  the  former  Royalists,  so  much 
complained  of  by  their  opponents  in  the  State  and 
country  at  large.  They  demanded  yearly  assemblies 
and  yearly  tenure  of  office,  constant  vigilance  of 
committees  of  the  Legislature  over  public  affairs, 
and  strict  accountability  of  members  of  the  Conti 
nental  Congress  to  their  constituents,  who,  as  was 
repeatedly  declared  after  the  adoption  of  the  gen 
eral  constitution,  were  to  be  guided  in  their  votes 
by  the  wishes  of  the  Assembly,  and  not  by  their 
own  opinions  of  public  policy.  The  members  of  the 
Congress  which  sat  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
had  their  hands  sufficiently  tied  during  these  years 
of  State  supremacy. 

But  a  remarkable  feature  of  their  era  of  control, 
and  that  which  made  out  the  third  ,part  of  their 
programme,  was  their  attention  to  education.  A 
general  revival  of  learning  seems  to  have  set  in  dur 
ing  the  earlier  portion  of  their  control.  In  the 

i  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVIII.,  418. 


ADOPTION  OF  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  53 

midst  of  the  turmoil  of  war  and  imminent  danger  to 
the  State  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1780,  we 
find  the  Assembly  organizing  a  seminary  of  learn 
ing  in  Granville  county,  and  incorporating  a 
board  for  its  control  and  government.  Immediately 
after  the  war  closed,  their  educational  policy  became 
general  and  effective.  Nearly  every  Assembly 
insisted  that  "one  or  more  universities  ought  to  be 
established  by  law."  The  men  who  insisted  on 
this  increase  in  the  facilities  for  education  were  the 
graduates  of  the  good  old  Presbyterian  College  of 
New  Jersey,  already  mentioned.  The  popular 
ex-Governor  Martin,  General  Davie,  and  the  Hawk 
ins  brothers,  were  making  their  Presbyterian  train 
ing  tell,  though  they  were  not  all  Presbyterians 
themselves.  A  dozen  schools  and  academies,  some 
of  which  received  aid  from  the  State,  were  estab 
lished  by  the  General  Assembly  in  the  year  1786 
alone.1  The  Davidson  Academy  was  given  the 
benefit  of  the  Salt  Springs  in  the  neighborhood, 
which  had  been  the  property  of  the  government; 
and  Hillsboro  Academy,  on  the  recommendation 
of  William  Hooper,  was  to  receive  aid  from  the 
State.  All  parties  joined  in  this  educational  revival ; 
the  day  had  not  come  for  rivalries  and  jealousies 
concerning  the  greatest  duty  the  human  race  has  to 
perform  —  the  education  of  the  young.  The 
advanced  views  of  the  Virginian  reformers  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  did  not,  however,  find  a  hearty 
welcome  in  North  Carolina.  Notwithstanding  the 
extreme  tendency  for  that  day  of  the  liberal  reform 
party,  in  so  far  as  the  rights  and  privileges  of  white 
men  were  concerned,  there  was  not  that  sympathy 
and  solicitude  for  the  ultimate  happiness  of  the 
negro  race  which  characterized  Washington,  Jeffer- 

i  N.  C  State  Records,  XVIIL,  256-316. 


54:  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

son,  Mason,  and  others  in  Virginia.  The  principal 
influence  which  was  made,  felt  in  North  Carolina 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  Negro 
had  its  source  in  the  Quaker  settlements  and  their 
homely  meeting-houses.  A  law  was  passed  in  1786 
declaring  the  importation  of  negroes  to  be  "of  evil 
consequences  and  highly  impolitic,"  and  placing  a 
tax  of  five  pounds  on  each  negro  imported  after  that 
date,  which  it  need  scarcely  be  said  was  in  advance 
of  the  time.1 

These  were  the  primal  measures  of  the  party 
which  opposed  any  form  of  confederation  with  the 
other  States,  and  their  object  was  clearly  what 
Jones  himself  desired — an  independent  republic 
administering  its  affairs  in  a  fatherly  manner.  It  was 
after  all  a  sort  of  paternalism  so  much  in  vogue  in 
Europe  at  the  time.  Jones  and  his  followers  out 
lined  a  plan  of  procedure  for  the  State,  which  pro 
vided  for  a  separate  existence  from  the  Union,  for 
a  period  of  five  years,  in  which  time,  it  was  thought, 
such  a  spirit  of  independence  and  particularism 
would  be  developed  as  would  prevent  forever  the 
adoption  of  the  General  Constitution.  These  men 
had,  however,  carried  their  plan  too  far;  Virginia's 
influence  in  North  Carolina  was  great;  the  friends 
of  the  new  Constitution  were  powerful,  and  they 
soon  gathered  to  them  all  the  more  conservative 
political  forces  of  the  State;  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  guaranteed,  too,  the  peace  of  the  State,  protec 
tion  from  invasion  by  the  Indians.  And  it  was  but 
a  short  while  before  men  began  to  change  their  opin 
ions,  and  to  wish  that  some  arrangement  might  be 
made  with  the  United  States.  A  second  convention 
was  called  to  meet  at  Fayetteville,  and  the  National 
Constitution  was  adopted,  the  convention  being 

*  See  Journals  of  Assembly. 


ADOPTION  OF  NATIONAL,  CONSTITUTION.  55 

guaranteed,  though  not  officially,  that  certain  amend 
ments  should  be  made,  which  should  include  a  Bill 
of  Rights  not  unlike  that  appended  to  the  North 
Carolina  Constitution.  This  was  done  in  Novem 
ber,  1789,  only  a  year  after  the  Hillsboro  Cojiven- 
tion  had  so  peremptorily  rejected  all  plans  of  union, 
and  six  months  after  Washington  had  been  inaugu 
rated.  It  has  been  generally  believed  that  North 
Carolina  remained  out  of  the  Union  in  accordance 
with  a  general  understanding  with  the  Virginia 
Anti-Federalists,  in  order  to  secure  the  above-named 
amendments.  Whether  this  is  true  can  not  be  defi 
nitely  shown ;  but  from  the  policy  of  the  opponents 
of  adoption  one  is  convinced  that  they  intended  to 
remain  out  of  the  Union  until  Patrick  Henry's  pro 
posed  plan  of  forming  a  confederacy  of  Southern 
States  could  be  matured. 

Nathaniel  Macon  was  not  a  member  of  either  of 
the  constitutional  conventions ;  but  John  Macon  was 
a  member  of  the  first,  and  presumably  of  the  second. 
In  the  first,  he  staunchly  opposed  adoption,  and 
assisted  Jones  and  Person  materially  in  defeating 
the  plans  of  the  Federalists.  All  three  of  the 
Macons  who  were  in  political  life  belonged  to  the 
Jones  party.  When,  however,  the  northern  sec 
tion  of  the  State  came  to  favor  adoption ;  when 
Jones'  programme  proved  unpopular,  even  in  his 
own  county  of  Halifax,  Nathaniel  Macon  acquiesced 
and  became  the  first  representative  from  the  Hills 
boro  district  in  the  National  House  of  Representa 
tives. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS,   1791-1795. 

Nathaniel  Macon,  then  almost  thirty-three  years 
old,  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  as 
a  member  for  the  Hillsboro  District  of  North  Caro 
lina  on  Oct.  26,  1791  (Warren,  Franklin,  Granville, 
Wake  and  Orange  counties  constituted  this  district). 
On  the  same  day,  and  sworn  in  at  the  same  time  at 
the  bar  of  the  House,  came  Theodore  Sedgwick,  of 
Massachusetts,  a  man  as  different  from  Macon  in 
political  ideals,  in  personal  demeanor,  as  the  North 
is  different  from  the  South ;  the  political  antipode  of 
Macon,  was  this  Sedgwick,  for  many  years  to 
come,  the  man  who  was  twice  to  compete  with  him 
for  the  Speakership  of  the  House.1  Macon  was 
just  entering  on  a  career  which  was  to  continue 
without  interruption  for  a  period  of  thirty-seven 
years,  on  a  career  which  kept  him  in  the  arena  of 
National  politics  at  a  time  when  the  bands  of 
National  union  were  being  forged.  The  experience 
he  brought  into  his  new  field  of  labor  was  not  the 
most  extensive.  Reared  on  a  tobacco  plantation, 
educated  in  a  Puritan  college ;  a  student  of  law  and 
English  history  for  three  years;  tried  in  the  stress 
of  1780-1781  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  in  the 
South ;  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  Assemblies 
from  1780-1786,  at  a  time  when  political  parties 
were  not  unevenly  balanced;  member-elect  of  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1787,  and  an  active  oppo- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  id  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  143. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  57 

nent  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
his  experience  could  not  have  been  inferior  to  that 
of  many  another,  yet  it  had  been  almost  entirely  of 
a  provincial  nature.  International  affairs  were  then 
and  for  a  long  time  to  come  beyond  his  political  hori 
zon.  On  the  other  hand,  States  Rights,  local 
patriotism  of  the  Virginian  type,  and  close  affilia 
tion  with  the  intensest  opponents  of  Nationalism, 
had  tended  to  prejudice  his  mind  against  all  matters 
of  national  concern.  He  was  a  planter  of  mediocre 
means,  a  gentleman  whose  closest  companions,  after 
the  members  of  his  family,  were  his  thoroughbreds 
and  his  dogs.  He  remained  a  planter  and  isolated 
from  the  world  of  commerce,  and  his  life  in  fields 
and  forests  tended  to  increase  his  contempt  for  the 
narrow  limits  of  town  and  city. 

Macon  entered  National  politics  when  the  first 
pass  of  arms  between  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  the 
representatives  of  the  antagonistic  forces  of  the  new 
nation,  had  just  taken  place;  and  Southern  members 
were  beginning  to  feel  sore  over  the  defeat  which 
it  had  brought  them.  Virginia  was  complaining 
that  New  England  and  the  Dutch  city  on  the  Hud 
son  were  carrying  things  their  own  way  and  for 
selfish,  commercial  ends.  Pennsylvania  was  agi 
tated  by  the  long  and  acrimonious  quarrel  with  Con- 
necticutt  about  the  Wyoming  Valley,  and  the  west 
ern  settlers  of  the  same  state  were  transferring 
their  opposition,  so  long  directed  at  their  own  State 
government  to  that  of  the  Nation.  Foreign  affairs 
were  becoming  more  and  more  complicated  and 
unfriendly  toward  the  young  republic,  which  was 
promising  to  become  an  everlasting  monument  to 
European  jealousy.  All  Europe  was  divided  into 
two  camps— camps  commanded  by  Frenchmen  on 
the  one  side,  and  Englishmen  on  the  other.  The 


58  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

leaven  of  the  American  Revolution  was  working 
mightily  in  every  country  in  the  civilized  world,  and 
Americans  themselves  began  to  stand  awe-stricken 
at  the  havoc  they  had  done  and  were  doing  still ;  the 
more  conservative  of  them  in  the  United  States,  as 
we  have  seen  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  became 
exceedingly  fearful  of  the  results,  drew  back  and 
formulated  a  creed  of  reaction,  while  the  more  radi 
cal  still  held  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as 
the  chart  by  which  not  only  ours,  but  all  the  ships 
of    state    should    be    guided.     The    conservatives 
espoused  extreme  Nationalist  views;  the  radicals — 
Republicans,  as  they  now  began  to  designate  them 
selves — took  up  the  cause  of  the   States,  and  the 
cause  of  individual  rights  and  equality.     "The  peo 
ple,"  what  they  are,  what  their  place  in  the  Ameri 
can  commonwealth  was  to  be,  were  the  questions 
which  exercised  every  mind.     Madison  was  becom 
ing  distasteful  to  the  East,  because  he  listened  to 
"arguments  ad  populum";  and  Jay  declared,  what 
many  believe  now,  that  "the  majority  of  every  peo 
ple  are  deficient  both  in  virtue  and  in  knowledge." 
Madison's  friend,  Jefferson,  was  saying  that  instead 
of  one  honest  man  in  fifteen  among  the  common  peo 
ple,  he  found  fourteen ;  and  that  instead  of  fourteen 
honest  men   in  fifteen   among  the  so-called  better 
classes,    he     found    only    one.1     Hamilton,    Jay's 
friend  and  political  patron  of  a  later  day,  thought 
the  people  a  "great  beast,"  which  must  be  securely 
bound  if  one  would  live  at  peace  and  under  a  good 
government.     Furthermore,  people  were  still  read 
ing  and  discussing  two  exceedingly  interesting  and 
important    books :     Burke's    "  Reflections    on    the 
French  Revolution"  and  Tom  Paine's  "  Rights  of 
Man."     Besides,  and  old  Princeton  student,  Philip 

*  Writings  of  Jefferson  (Ford),  VII  ,  24-25. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  59 

Freneau,  was  publishing  his  most  partisan  and 
saucy  Gazette,  a  Democratic  journal,  which  was 
opposed  by  Fenno's  Gazette,  another  paper  which 
existed  solely  for  partisan  purposes.  Members 
of  the  Cabinet  and  leaders  of  Congress  wrote, 
under  Latin  nom  de  plumes,  the  dryest  political 
essays,  which,  however,  were  read  enough  to  set 
people  guessing  who  the  authors  were,  and  to  put 
the  politicians  at  one  another's  ears.1  What  Macon 
was  to  become  amidst  these  surroundings,  and  which 
side  would  gain  his  support,  would  not  have  been 
difficult  to  determine  even  then  by  those  who  knew 
him. 

Macon  was  not  present  when  the  House  was 
exchanging  its  rather  Republican  Speaker,  Muhlen- 
berg,  for  Jonathan  Trumbull,  of  Connecticut^  a 
man  of  the  required  political  complexion;  but  he 
was  there  to  witness  the  two  days  of  hair-splitting 
courtesy  between  the  representatives  of  the  sover 
eign  people  in  the  President's  chair,  and  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  same  sovereign  people  in  the  sev 
enty-five  chairs  of  the  House,  and  all  about  the  eti 
quette  in  the  House's  reply  to  the  President's 
address.  The  first  debates  that  Macon  heard  in  this 
new  arena  were  on  the  prosy  subject  of  the  appor 
tionment  of  representatives ;  and  he  was  made 
a  member  of  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare  and 
bring  in  a  bill  suitable  to  a  resolution,  that  thirty 
thousand  should  be  the  number  of  voters  requisite 
to  each  representative.  The  committee  reported  its 
bill  November  31,  and  the  first  words  of  Macon  in 
the  House  were  delivered  in  favor  of  increasing  the 
number  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  thousand,  and 
when  Bourne,  of  Rhode  Island,  rather  uselessly 
opposed  his  amendment,  Macon  arose  and  made  a 

i  Schouler  :  History  of  the  United  States,  I.,  150-200. 


60  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

very  pointed  and  sensible  remark  of  a  single  sen 
tence,1  to  the  effect  that  Rhode  Island's  demand  for 
a  constitutional  amendment  touching  the  subject 
was  not  likely  to  be  granted.  Macon's  amendment 
was  lost,  as  was  also  the  one  for  thirty- four  thousand 
offered  by  Bourne,  and  a  bill  favoring  one  represent 
ative  for  every  thirty  thousand  voters  passed,  but 
was  rejected  by  the  Senate,  which,  since  the  arrange 
ment  would  leave  a  greater  number  of  large  frac 
tions  in  the  New  England  states,  was  to  that  body 
highly  objectionable.  It  proposed  thirty-three  thou 
sand,  which  the  House  in  turn  rejected.  A  second 
bill  passed  both  Houses,  but  was  vetoed  by  the 
President,  because  he  considered  it  unconstitutional 
— first  veto  in  our  national  history.  The  Senate 
plan  of  thirty-three  thousand  as  a  basis  was  then 
accepted  by  the  House,  and  became  a  law  April  14, 
I792.2  During  these  interminable  debates,  a  great 
deal  of  acrimony  and  partisanship  was  manifested; 
vox  populi  was  likened  to  vox  diaboli  on  one  occa 
sion  ;  at  other  times,  the  aristocratic  tendency  of  the 
Senate,  the  Slave  and  the  Bank  questions,  gave 
opportunity  for  sweeping  charges  and  general 
denunciations.  Macon  voted  with  his  colleagues 
steadily,  and  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  session 
ceased  to  make  any  remarks,  apparently  leaving  Dr. 
Hugh  Williamson  to  represent  himself  and  his 
State.  The  bill  as  finally  passed  increased  North 
Carolina's  representation  from  five  to  ten. 

The  next  subject  on  which  Macon  took  decided 
ground,  and  on  which  he  made  some  pointed 
remarks,  was  the  granting  to  the  widow  of  General 
Greene  a  sum  of  sixty  thousand  dollars  to  indemnify 
the  Greene  estate  for  losses  the  General  had  suffered 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  2d  Cong  ,  200. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  2d  Cong  ,  ist  Sess  ,  200  on  ;  Schouler,  I  ,  206. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  61 

as  a  result  of  his  becoming  surety  for  some  Americo- 
British  merchants  of  Charleston  in  1783.  Macon 
has  been  uniformly  censured  for  his  opposition  to 
the  petition  of  Mrs.  Greene.  The  case  seems  to 
have  been  as  follows:  in  November,  1782,  when 
the  American  army,  commanded  by  General  Greene, 
was  mutinying,  because  of  lack  of  food  and  clothing, 
General  Greene  entered  into  a  contract  with  Hunter, 
Banks  &  Co.,  of  Charleston,  to  furnish  the  necessary 
supplies,  although  it  was  generally  admitted  that  trie 
price  demanded  was  much  too  high.  But  no  com 
petitor  could  be  found,  and  after  due  efforts  were 
made  to  find  the  supplies  elsewhere,  the  contract 
had  been  closed.  In  April  of  the  following  year  the 
creditors  of  Hunter,  Banks  &  Co.  refused  to  cooper 
ate  further  in  the  delivery  of  army  supplies  without 
security,  and  General  Greene  himself  executed  a 
bond  in  behalf  of  Banks,  one  of  his  contractors,  for 
eight  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Hunter,  Banks  & 
Co.  failed  to  meet  their  obligations,  and  Greene's 
estate  became  liable.  The  authority  to  enter  into 
arrangements  with  contractors  for  supplying  the 
army  had  been  given  Greene  by  Congress,  and  so 
he  reported  all  of  his  actions  to  that  body  except  the 
surety  matter  of  April,  1783,  which  was  not  made 
public  until  it  was  known  that  a  large  sum  would 
have  to  be  paid  by  General  Greene.  When  this 
part  of  the  transaction  came  before  the  old  Congress, 
there  was  some  demur,  and  in  the  general  weakness 
of  that  body,  no  reparation  was  made.  In  1786, 
Greene  died,  and  the  executions  against  his  prop 
erty  were  partially  carried  into  effect,  and  Mrs. 
Greene  was  about  to  lose  altogether  sixty  thousand 
dollars  in  a  matter  which  concerned  chiefly  the 
United  States,  for  which  her  husband  had  acted. 
March  4,  179/3,  Mrs.  Greene  presented  her  claim 


62  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

to  Hamilton,  in  New  York,  who  made  out  a  lengthy 
petition  embodying  all  the  facts  in  the  case  and  sent 
it  to  Congress,  with  a  recommendation  for  its  favor 
able  consideration.  The  matter  did  not  come  up 
for  final  settlement  until  January,  1792,  when  stren 
uous  opposition  to  reimbursement,  based  on  numer 
ous  conditions,  developed:  (i)  Greene  had  made 
himself  very  unpopular  in  South  Carolina,  in  the 
fall  of  1782,  by  advocating  the  cause  of  some  ex 
treme  Royalists,  who  were  then  asking  favors  of  the 
State  government,  by  his  general  criticisms  of  the 
behavior  of  the  Southern  states  and  their  troops 
relative  to  the  war  and  to  his  campaign  in  particu 
lar,  and  also  by  his  disputing  the  authortiy  of  Gov 
ernor  Guerard  in  certain  matters,  which  the  latter 
claimed  fell  within  the  civil  jurisdiction;  (2)  some 
letters  of  the  Banks  Company  were  opened  by  Gen 
eral  Scott  in  Virginia,  in  the  fall  of  1782,  which 
showed  two  of  Greene's  staff  officers,  Forsyth  and 
Burnet,  to  be  silent  partners  in  the  Banks  concern, 
though  apparently  without  Greene's  knowledge;  (3) 
Greene  had  not  informed  Congress  of  an  important 
part  of  his  transactions,  until  it  was  found  that  he 
would  have  to  pay  the  surety.  Naturally  the  South 
ern  Congressmen,  who  had  nearly  all  heard  of  the 
reports,  following  the  opening  of  the  Banks  letters 
in  Virginia,  that  Greene  himself  was  speculating  in 
the  Banks  contracts,  were  disposed  to  oppose  the 
petition.  Besides  the  high  price  which  was  col 
lected  for  the  supplies,  the  fact  that  most  of  these 
supplies  came  through  the  Banks  firm  from  English 
merchants  whose  stocks  were  forced  upon  the  market 
by  the  evacuation  of  Charleston,  which  should  have 
lowered  prices,  and  the  entire  absence  of  other 
offers  in  so  large  a  town,  had  convinced  many  at 
the  time  that  Greene  was  interested  in  the  contracts ; 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  63 

and   in    1792   this   conviction   was   general   in   the 
South. 

It  is  not  the  author's  purpose  to  do  more  than 
state  the  conditions  which  influenced  Macon  in  his 
policy  of  opposing  Mrs.  Greene's  petition.  Macon, 
it  will  be  recalled,  entered  the  army  without  accept 
ing  the  usual  bounty,  and  it  may  be  added  here  that 
he  served  during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1780-1781 
absolutely  at  his  own  expense.  He  did  not,  as  it 
appears  from  his  later  actions,  expect  others  to  serve 
their  country  gratis ;  but  he  was  always  uncompro 
misingly  opppsed  to  any  man's  accepting  anything 
as  a  gratuity  from  the  government.  To  him  Greene 
had  become  unpopular  when  he  made  reflections  on 
North  Carolina  troops,  whether  there  was  ground 
for  such  reflections  or  not.  In  regard  to  the  alleged 
connections  of  Greene  with  Banks,  it  may  be  said 
that  most  Southern  Congressmen  appear  to  have 
credited  the  report.  Every  one  of  the  North  Caro 
lina  delegation  in  Congress  voted  against  granting 
the  indemnity  claimed  by  Mrs.  Greene.1  And  what 
ever  may  be  said  of  General  Greene's  integrity, 
which  scarce  any  one  doubts,  he  was  indiscreet  in 
his  behavior  in  these  transactions,  and  naturally 
questions  arose  in  the  minds  of  others  when  half 
his  army,  also,  had  believed  him  to  be  interested.2 
Most  commanders  of  exceptional  ability  have  been 
unfortunate  in  their  financial  affairs,  either  from 
lack  of  foresight  or  from  indifference,  and  such 
seems  to  have  been  the  case  with  General  Greene. 
It  was  not  because  Macon  opposed  the  allowance  of 
the  indemnity  to  the  Greene  estate ;  nor  because  he 
was  unwilling  to  reimburse  an  officer  who  had 
"gone  surety"  for  his  country.  John  Steele,  of  Sal- 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  ad  Cong ,  ist  Sess  .  531. 
a  Johnson's  t,ife  of  Nathaniel  Greene,  I.,  383. 


64  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

isbury,  son  of  the  woman  who  had  given  all  the 
money  she  had  to  Greene  in  1781,  and  a  man  most 
likely  to  view  the  case  in  a  favorable  light,  opposed 
the  petition,  and  he  seems  to  have  believed  that 
Greene  had  not  been  altogether  clear  of  the  charge 
which  had  been  brought  against  him.  Steele  was  a 
Federalist,  and  the  Federalists  almost  unanimously 
supported  Mrs.  Greene's  claim.1  What  still  further 
prejudiced  the  case  with  Macon  was  the  fact  that 
Hamilton  was  a  sort  of  attorney  for  Mrs.  Greene 
before  the  House.  Anything  which  Hamilton  did 
or  proposed  was  subject  to  serious  question  with 
Macon  at  that  time. 

From  the  beginning  the  Southern  members  of 
Congress  had  distrusted  Hamilton's  financial  scheme 
and  as  his  system  further  developed  this  distrust 
became  open  opposition.  The  funding  of  the 
National  debt,  assumption  of  State  debts  and  the 
organization  of  the  National  Bank  had  been  bit 
terly  opposed  by  the  South.  Hamilton's  doctrine 
that  "a  National  debt  will  be  a  National  blessing, 
a  powerful  cement  of  union,  a  necessity  for  keep 
ing  up  taxation,"  was  not  an  orthodox  political 
creed  south  of  Philadelphia.  The  consolidation  of 
financial  agencies ;  the  strong  and  open  attachment 
of  the  wealthy  classes  to  the  Treasury ;  the  bestowal 
of  doucers,  subsidies  and  commissions  on  those 
who  were  to  be  gained;  the  positive  assurance  on 
the  part  of  Hamilton  to  the  banks,  that  nothing 
should  be  lost  to  them  by  their  support  of  his  meas 
ures,  aroused  the  ire  of  plain  Republicans  like 
Macon  and  challenged  open  attack.  It  was  known 
that  the  Treasurer  was,  as  Schouler  says,  "Feather 
ing  the  nests  of  his  favorites,"  and  these  favorites 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  2d  Cong.,  ist  Sess  ,  455. 

2  Schouler,  I.,  217-218. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  65 

did  not  conceal  their  dislike  of  Democratic  institu 
tions.2  Everybody  in  Philadelphia,  except  Wash 
ington,  was  apparently  committed  to  one  or  the 
other  of  the  two  parties,  and  most  people  under 
stood  in  what  direction  Hamilton  was  steering  and 
with  what  means.  It  was  thought  that  many  were 
corruptly  connected  with  the  Treasurer  and  that 
an  investigation  would  bring  to  light  transactions 
which  would  essentially  check  the  rising  influence 
of  the  Secretary. 

On  February  23d  Macon  proposed  the  following 
resolution : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
cause  to  be  laid  before  this  House  a  statement  of 
the  balances  remaining  unpaid,  if  any,  which  may 
have  been  due  by  individuals  to  the  United  States 
previous  to  the  fourth  day  of  March,  one  thou 
sand,  seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  and  whether 
any,  and  what,  steps  have  been  taken  to  recover  the 
same;  and  also  a  statement  of  the  sundry  sums  of 
public  money  which  may  have  been  intrusted  to 
individuals,  previous  to  said  fourth  day  of  March, 
one  thousand,  seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  and 
have  not  been  accounted  for." 

The  purpose  of  this  resolution  was  plain  enough 
and  it  at  once  brought  all  the  friends  of  the  Treas 
urer  into  their  seats;  they  claimed  it  was  irregular, 
"out  of  form,"  and  calculated  to  embarass  the 
Comptroller  besides  carrying  an  imputation  on  that 
officer  when  no  charge  had  been  made.  If  any 
thing  had  been  going  wrong,  said  they,  let  us  call 
him  to  account  and  institute  an  impeachment,  but 
let  us  not  take  a  step  which  would  bring  an  investi 
gation.  A  storm  of  opposition  was  excited,  but 
the  supporters  of  Macon's  resolution  claimed  that 
no  imputation  was  meant  nor  could  be  read  into 
5 


66  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

it,  that  the  House  had  an  undoubted  right  to  call 
for  such  statements  from  the  Treasurer,  that  an 
opinion  had  gone  abroad  that  large  sums  of  money 
were  due  from  individuals,  and  that  the  public  has 
a  right  to  know  if  settlement  is  being  made  and 
that,  far  from  any  reflection  being  intended  upon 
the  Comptroller,  it  was,  on  the  contrary,  to  his  inter 
est  to  satisfy  the  public  of  the  falsity  of  public  opin 
ion  against  him  and  that  the  disclosure  of  names, 
which  the  opponents  of  the  resolution  had  made  so 
much  of,  would  only  relieve  good  men  from  being 
suspected  of  illicit  connection  with  the  treasury. 
"No  honest  man  need  fear  an  investigation"  was 
the  claim  of  Macon  and  his  supporters1. 

Macon  served  on  several  other  committees,  and 
offered  one  or  two  other  resolutions  during  the 
first  session  of  the  Second  Congress.  It  is  interest 
ing  to  note,  in  view  of  his  later  political  life,  that 
he  moved  to  strike  out  a  clause  of  a  bill  which 
would  have  removed  the  duty  on  foreign  cotton. 
The  House  was  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  consid 
ering  this  bill.  It  had  been  proposed  to  enhance  the 
duty  on  hemp  and  strike  out  that  on  cotton.  Doctor 
Williamson,  from  Edenton,  North  Carolina,  was  so 
interested  in  a  pet  scheme  of  his  for  improving 
American  navigation,  which  he  thought  would  be 
aided  by  the  measure,  that  he  favored  the  clause 
against  cotton.  Macon,  apparently  better  acquainted 
with  the  conditions  of  that  infant  industry,  insisted 
that  the  duty  on  cotton  should  remain,  that  great 
quantities  were  being  raised  in  the  South  for  which 
there  was  not  a  sufficient  demand.  John  Steele  of 
North  Carolina  and  John  Page  of  Virginia  made 
speeches  in  favor  of  Macon's  protection  for  his 
"infant  industry."  Steele  declared  that  "the  farm- 

»  Annals  of  Congress,  ad  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  425. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  67 

ers  of  North  Carolina  had  gone  largely  into  the 
cultivation  of  that  article"  and  Page  maintained 
further  that  the  first  varieties  of  cotton,  which  New 
Englanders  claimed  could  be  had  only  from  Europe, 
were  being  grown  in  the  South  and  that  successful 
experiments  had  been  recently  made  with  West 
India  cotton.  Kittera  of  Pennsylvania  opposed  the 
encouragement  of  cottongrowing  because  it  would 
impoverish  the  soil  and  work  injury  to  the  farmer 
himself.  The  Eastern  men  carried  their  measure 
and  Macon's  protective  tariff  policy  was  defeated; 
but  it  had  required  the  vote  of  the  Speaker.  Two 
South  Carolinians,  William  Smith  and  Daniel 
Huger  voted  with  the  Easterners1. 

The  debates  on  this  subject  occupied  only  a  short 
time  in  the  House  and  excited  no  comment  in  the 
country ;  but  the  little  pass  at  arms  was  very  signifi 
cant,  could  any  one  have  foreseen  that  the  "infant 
industry"  of  cotton  growing  was  to  become  the 
greatest  in  America  and  was  to  be  the  indirect 
cause  of  our  greatest  war.  Cotton  lost ;  and  manu 
facturers  gained;  but  the  beginning  in  this  sort  of 
dispute  had  scarce  been  made.  Macon  was  the 
advocate  of  protection  and  Doctor  Williamson, 
Macon's  colleague,  finally  voted  for  the  measure 
simply  because  it  might  build  up  a  carrying  trade 
and  give  employment  to  "his  sailors."  Macon  fore 
saw  the  importance  of  cotton,  its  advantage  to  the 
South,  his  section,  and  he  at  once  took  his  stand. 
His  heart  was  with  the  South  primarily  and  after 
wards  with  the  Union,  and  such  motives  actuated 
most  men  who  voted  in  the  early  is  not  all  subse 
quent  Congresses. 

Before  the  second  session  of  the   Second  Con 
gress  opened,  the  second  presidential  election  took 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  ad  Cong.,  ist  Sess  ,  560. 


68  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

place.  North  Carolina  was  glad  to  cast  its  entire 
vote  for  Washington  for  President;  but  not  so 
with  Adams  for  Vice-President.  George  Clinton 
received  the  twelve  electorial  votes  of  the  State  for 
that  office.  The  election  of  a  successor  to  Samuel 
Johnston,  who  had  been  chosen  in  1790  for  a  term 
of  two  years  in  the  United  States  Senate,  occasioned 
a  deadlock  of  twelve  days  in  the  Assembly  of 
1 792-^93.  The  outcome  was  Johnston's  defeat.  He 
was  the  recognized  leader  of  the  extreme  Federal 
ists  and  his  defeat  was  the  prime  object  of  Macon's 
party.  Alexander  Martin,  a  Virginian  school 
teacher,  who  had  been  Governor  of  North  Caro 
lina,  a  man  who  began  his  career  by  voting  against 
the  Federalists  and  ended  it  by  voting  with  them, 
was  made  his  successor.  In  the  House  only  two 
members  of  the  Second  Congress  from  North  Caro 
lina  were  returned  the  following  year,  1793,  one  of 
whom  was  William  Barry  Grove,  a  good  Federal 
ist  from  Cumberland  county,  who  had  once  been 
the  proteg6  of  MacLaine,  and  the  Hoopers,  the 
other  Nathaniel  Macon.  The  cause  of  the  sweep 
ing  change  was  the  general  dissatisfaction  with  the 
support  some  members  had  given  Hamilton's  Treas 
ury  measures  and  the  excise;  and,  more  than  all, 
the  disposition  of  Johnston  was  to  ignore  the  people 
and  the  legislature.  It  had  been  the  custom  of  the 
delegates  to  the  old  Congress  to  appear  each  year 
before  the  Assembly  and,  like  the  ambassadors  of 
ancient  Venice,  give  accounts  of  their  stewardship. 
Johnston  and  Hawkins,  the  other  Senator,  had 
made  no  attempt  to  meet  this  custom  but  had  rather 
shown  contempt  for  the  poffered  instructions  of  the 
legislature.  North  Carolinians  were  displeased,  evi 
dently,  with  the  first  "Republican  court,"  as  Gris- 
wold  has  called  it,  and  the  elections  of  1792  and 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  69 

1793  ''cleansed  the  seats"  of  those  who  were  sus 
pected  of  being  tainted  with  Federalism.  As  was 
said,  Grove  alone  was  able  by  virtue  of  the  staunch 
Federalism  which  grew  out  of  the  Moore's  Creek 
battle  to  retain  his  place.  He  remained  a  member 
of  Congress  from  his  district,  Cumberland  and 
neighboring  counties,  for  twenty  years  to  come.1 

The  short  session  of  this  Congress  was  not  fruit 
ful  of  beneficial  legislation.  The  opposition  under 
the  leadership  of  Madison,  Macon  and  Giles  directed 
all  their  blows  against  Hamilton  with  the  view  of 
forcing  him  from  the  cabinet,  as  Hamilton  himself 
had,  through  the  papers,  attempted  to  force  Jefferson 
to  retire.  After  some  weeks  spent  in  measuring 
fine  speeches  with  the  President,  the  opposition 
began  their  determined  attack.  The  recent  elec 
tions  in  the  Southern  states  had  shown  how  general 
was  the  dislike  for  the  ways  of  the  Secretary  of 
Treasury.  Virginia  had  passed  scathing  resolutions 
against  the  Assumption  bill;  the  people  of  west 
ern  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina  had  refused 
to  pay  the  excise  tax  on  whiskey;  George  Clinton, 
with  the  aid  of  Aaron  Burr,  the  adroitest  politician 
in  America,  had  gained  control  of  New  York  and 
had  finally  secured  the  whole  vote  of  the  Republican 
party  in  that  State  for  the  Vice-Presidency  despite 
Hamilton's  greatest  endeavors.2  The  opposition 
began  their  fight  in  some  resolutions  in  reply  to 
Washington's  address  and  they  managed  to  turn 
every  debate  in  the  direction  of  Hamilton  until 
finally  Giles,  the  nominal  leader  of  the  Virginia 
delegation  in  the  House,  brought  in  the  series  of 
resolutions  demanding  a  sharp  inquest  in  the  man 
agement  of  the  Treasury,  the  same  plan,  but  differ- 

1  journals  of  the  North  Carolina  Assembly,  1792,21-23  ;  Moore,  I.,  412. 

2  Schouler,  I.,  231. 


70  NATHANIEX   MACON. 

ently  and  more  elaborately  outlined,  which  Macon 
had  proposed  at  the  preceding  session.  Madison 
made  a  long  and  effective  speech  in  favor  of  it, 
while  Smith  of  the  Charleston  district,  South  Caro 
lina,  and  Sedgwick  of  Massachusetts,  took  up  the 
defence  of  Hamilton.  Macon's  attitude  was  the 
same,  judging  by  his  vote,  in  this  instance  as  it 
had  been  when  he  himself  directed  the  attack.  But 
the  hour  had  been  ill  chosen,  and  before  the  final 
vote  was  taken,  Giles  overshot  his  mark  by  attempt 
ing  to  pass  a  vote  severely  censuring  Hamilton ; 
this  weakened  very  decidedly  the  whole  opposition 
scheme.  Still  the  Secretary  was  only  partially 
exonerated  and  rather  plainly  criticised  for 
repeatedly  transcending  his  authority  in  the  mat 
ter  of  loans1. 

The  thi*d  Congress  met  in  Philadelphia  in 
November,  1793,  with  a  delegation  of  ten  members 
from  North  Carolina  in  the  House  instead  of  the 
former  five.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  dele 
gates  was  due  to  the  census  of  1790  and  the  follow 
ing  reapportionment.  Not  a  little  has  been  said  about 
the  unfair  treatment  of  North  Carolina  by  the  First 
and  Second  Congresses  in  allowing  the  State  only 
five  delegates.  But  the  blame  lies  wholly  with 
North  Carolina.  A  census  had  been  taken  by  order 
of  the  State  government  in  1786,  and  it  was  so 
poorly  done  that  not  half  the  population- was  enu 
merated.2  This  count  had  been  the  basis  of  the 
first  apportionment,  which  explains  why  the  State 
sent  only  five  members  to  Congress  when  it  was 
entitled  to  send  at  least  eight.  The  new  and  larger 
delegation  was  almost  entirely  Republican,  "Antis," . 
or  "Mobocrats,"  as  the  Federalists  called  them. 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  2d  Cong.,  2d  Sess  ,  899  on. 
a  N.  C.  State  Records,  XVIII.,  433-434- 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  71 

Macon  was  as  much  their  leader  as  any — no 
Republican  leader  among  North  Carolinians  having 
developed  especial  strength  in  National  politics. 
The  democratic  spirit  was  so  prevalent  in  North 
Carolina  that  a  sort  of  dead-level  was  kept  up  in  its 
delegation ;  no  men  of  great  ability  belonged  to  it, 
also  no  untrustworthy  ones.  Experience  in  legis 
lative  matters  was  likely  to  give  precedence  and  on 
that  ground  Macon  seems  to  have  assumed  a  certain 
kind  of  leadership. 

Macon's  first  work  in  the  new  Congress  was  to 
recommend,  as  a  member  of  a  special  committee, 
an  oppropriation  for  increasing  our  naval  force  in 
order  to  bring  the  Barbary  States  of  Africa  to  rea 
son.  The  Federalits  voted  against  the  bill  because 
they  deemed  the  appropriation  entirely  inadequate1. 
During  the  months  following,  he  was  always  pres 
ent  and  served  on  several  small  committees.  The 
debate  on  the  Militia  bill  of  that  session  was  long 
and  tedious  and  turned  many  a  time  against  Macon's 
pet  notions  respecting  the  importance  of  militia 
service. 

May  6th  Macon  introduced  a  series  of  resolu 
tions  looking  to  a  change  of  the  excise  laws  which 
were  working  so  much  dissatisfaction  in  Pennsyl 
vania  and  most  of  the  other  States  to  the  South. 
These  resolutions  provided  (i)  for  a  tax  on  malt 
beer  and  porter  made  in  the  United  States ;  ( 2 )  on 
all  imported  beers;  (3)  on  all  cider  made  in  the 
country,  and  (4)  if  the  third  resolution  taxing  cider 
passed,  no  tax  was  to  be  collected  on  brandy  since 
that  would  be  double  taxation.  The  real  object 
of  these  resolutions  was  to  bring  all  parts  of  the 
country  under  the  operation  of  the  odious  excise 
laws,  which  was  soon  to  bring  on  insurrection  in 

i  Anals  of  Congress,  3d  Cong.,  ist  Sess  ,  154-155- 


72  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

several  sections  of  the  country.  As  at  that  time 
enforced  the  excise  was  extremely  oppressive  to  the 
distillers  of  Western  Pennsylvania  and  the  moun 
tain  sections  of  the  South — men  whose  only  means 
of  raising  a  "money  crop"  was  by  transforming 
their  abundant  fruits  into  brandy,  or  their  corn  into 
whiskey,  both  of  which  were  easily  marketable. 
"Hamilton's  excise,"  as  Jefferson  was  fond  of  call 
ing  it,  was  pressing  from  the  poorest  classes  of 
people  a  million  a  year,  while  the  wealthier  con 
sumers  of  beer  and  wine  in  the  East  and  in  the 
cities  were  not  taxed  at  all.  Macon's  proposed  plan 
would  have  made  the  tax  general,  with  advantages 
in  favor  of  the  South,  where  most  cider  was  made 
and  consumed  on  the  plantation,  and  therefore  im 
possible  to  be  taxed.  Madison  opposed  Macon's 
scheme  along  with  the  whole  excise  system ;  Nicho 
las  of  Virginia  favored  it  because  it  would  become 
so  exasperating  to  the  whole  people  that  the  tax 
would  have  to  be  removed.  Macon's  claim  was 
that  the  present  system  was  not  just  and  so  he 
offered  -this  to  equalize  taxation ;  though  he  too 
modestly  deferred  to  the  "sentiments  of  the  major 
ity"  at  the  close  of  his  few  remarks.  The  resolu 
tions,  after  some  rather  ungenerous  charges  of 
inconsistency  on  the  part  of  advocates  of  them,1 
failed  of  passing.  At  the  time  the  Macon  reso 
lutions  were  before  the  House,  Hamilton's  car 
riage  tax  was  being  advocated.  This  tax  would 
apply  particularly  in  Virginia  and  the  South,  where 
-  the  great  distances  between  plantations  made  vehi 
cles  a  necessity,  even  to  the  small  landholders ;  this 
Macon  opposed  uniformly,  but  it  could  not  be  pre 
vented  frorii  becoming  a  law.2 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  3d  Cong.,  ist  Sess  ,  648-651. 
a  Annals  of  Congress,  3<1  Cong  ,  ist  Sess.,  672. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  73 

Macon  became  again  the  cause  of  a  lively  dispute 
about  the  policy  of  the  Treasury  on  May  12.  A  reso 
lution  had  just  passed  calling  on  the  Treasurer  to 
submit  to  the  executives  of  the  several  States 
reports  on  the  condition  of  accounts  between  the 
States  and  the  general  government.  Macon  had 
been  appointed  chairman  of  the  committee  to  confer 
with  Hamilton  on  the  subject.  He  now  made  a  mo 
tion  that  copies  of  another  report  be  furnished  giving 
clear  information  on  other  subjects,  one  of  which  was 
the  disposition  made  of  certain  public  funds  about 
which  the  Federalists  were  reluctant  to  speak.  Sedg- 
wick  was  at  once  on  the  floor  declaring  that  Macon 
desired  to  "raise  discord  and  jealousy  in  the  United 
States  and  to  feed  them."  Some  warm  words  fol 
lowed  and  Macon's  resolution  was  finally  referred 
to  a  committee  which  never  reported,  which  was 
expected1.  Hamilton  was  not  an  object  of  cordial 
love  with  the  North  Carolina  delegation  and  Macon, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  particularly  averse  to  his 
methods,  taking  every  occasion  to  criticise  them. 
This  motion  was  a  kind  of  parting  shot  from 
Macon  at  the  close  of  the  session. 

On  Macon's  return  to  Congress  after  the  summer 
and  autumn  vacation,  he  was  made  a  member  of 
the  first  standing  committee  on  elections  and,  though 
he  was  not  chairman,  he  seems  to  have  shown  his 
judicial  and  upright  turn  of  mind  so  clearly  that  by 
common  consent  he  became  the  moving  spirit  of  the 
committee  and  made  its  reports.2  The  report  of  the 
committee  in  the  first  contest  was  an  interesting  one 
in  view  of  some  recent  disputes  about  resignations  of 
members  of  Congress.  It  was  between  Mercer  and 
Dttvall  of  Maryland.  Mercer  had  given  in  his  res- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  sd  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  674-75. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  sd  Cong  ,  2d  Sess.,  874. 


- 


74  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ignation  to  the  Governor  and  it  had  been  accepted. 
A  new  election  was  called  and  Duvall  was  chosen 
for  the  unexpired  term.  Mercer  changed  his  mind 
and  claimed,  it  seems,  that  his  resignation  was  not 
valid  and  returned  to  Congress,  claiming  his  seat. 
The  committee  held  that  the  Governor's*  action  in 
accepting  the  resignation  and  ordering  a  new  elec 
tion  was  constitutional,  and  that  Duvall  was  enti 
tled  to  the  seat. 

The  President's  speech  at  the  opening  called 
forth  an  angry  debate,  which  was  kept  up  for 
weeks,  and  which  finally  resulted  in  the  first  dis 
sent  of  the  House  from  Washington's  opinion. 
Macon  voted  with  the  dissenters,  though  there  is 
no  evidence  of  a  more  active  opposition  on  his  part 
to  the  President's  recommendation,  notwithstand 
ing  their  whole  tenor  was  against  his  decided  con 
victions1.  In  the  other  important  measures,  the 
public  debt,  naturalization  bill,  defense  of  the 
frontiers,  which  excited  so  much  acrimonious  and 
useless  debate,  Macon  took  no  part  openly;  but 
when  the  question  of  indemnity  to  the  University 
of  North  Carolina  and  to  many  citizens  of  the 
State  for  losses  sustained,  when  the  United  States 
restored  to  the  Indians  large  tracts  of  Tennessee 
lands,  to  which  these  parties  had  claims,  came  up, 
he  made  a  short  speech  in  favor  of  indemnity  and 
labored  industriously  for  the  petitioners  until  at 
least  a  measure  of  relief  was  guaranteed.2  In  this 
matter,  as  in  most  others,  Sedgwick  opposed  him 
particularly,  maintaining  that  the  allowance  of  the 
so-called  Thomas  Person  claims  would  open  the 
way  for  thousands  of  others. 

The  last,  public  utterance  of  Macon. during  this 

1  Anuals  of  Congress,  ad  Cong  ,  2d  Sess.,  894-946. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  3d  Cong  ,  2d  Sess.,  1155  on. 


FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  75 

session  was  against  the  bill  granting  a  purse  of 
four  thousand  dollars  to  the  daughters  of  Count 
de  Grasse,  then  living  in  Boston.  So  much  has 
been  said  about  the  niggardliness  of  this  sort  of 
opposition  on  the  part  of  Macon  that  the  quoting 
of  his  speech  is  hardly  out  of  place,  since  it  sets 
forth  his  reasons  for  opposing  the  measure  in  the 
fewest  possible  words :  "that  though  the  claims 
of  the  petitioners  were  strong,  yet  they  were  not 
more  so  than  those  of  multitudes  of  others.  On 
the  very  day  when  we  have  come  to  a  resolution, 
to  receive  no  more  petitions  from  our  fellow  citi 
zens,  we  are  going  to  give  at  once  so  large  a  sum 
to  foreigners.  I  am  aware  that  the  Count  de  Grasse 
has  done  eminent  services  to  America,  and  I  feel 
them  as  much  as  any  person,  but  still  I  see  no  reason 
for  preferring  these  petitioners  when  there  are 
likely  an  hundred  of  the  officers  of  de  Grasse,  or  of 
Rochambeau's  army,  that  are  in  this  country  and 
in  want"1.  There  were  many  others  in  the  coun 
try  who  felt  as  did  Macon  on  this  subject,  though 
not  many  in  Congress,  for  nearly  all  of  his  party 
voted  for  the  gift  to  the  de  Grasse  daughters,  Madi 
son  its  leader,  being  a  member  of  the  committee 
which  drew  the  bill.  Macon  stood  so  nearly  alone 
in  this  that  no  record  was  made  of  the  votes. 

Soon  after  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  Novem 
ber  preceding  Macon  had  received  a  letter  from 
General  John  Steele,  who  had  been  defeated  two 
years  before  for  Congress  because  of  his  supposed 
Federalist  tendencies.  This  letter,  as  will  be  seen, 
contained  a  request  for  Macon's  endorsement  for 
some  office  to  which  he  aspired,  apparently  Hawk- 
in's  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Macon's 
reply  is  characteristic.  He  very  politely  declined 
to  sign  with  Grove,  a  strong  Federalist,  the  certi- 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  sd  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1235. 


76  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ficate  which  had  been  sent  him.  Macon  could  not 
thus  commit  himself  to  a  candidate  who  was,  to 
say  the  least,  not  in  agreement  with  his  party.  His 
reply  is  more  carefully  worded  than  usual  and  the 
expression  of  his  opinion  of  Steele's  candidacy  is 
well  enough  covered  up  under  the  phrase  "proper 
reflection  and  time  will  convince  any  one  that  you 
deserve  well  of  the  State." 

This  letter  deserves  full  quotation  in  view  of  the 
opinions  expressed  concerning  his  views  and  the 
state  of  parties  at  the  time :  "I  am  really  sorry  that 
it  is  not  in  my  power  to  say  a  word  on  that  sub 
ject  or  sign  the  certificate  agreeable  to  your  desire. 
Although  I  was  not  present  when  you  made  the 
speech,  I  remember  perfectly  well  that  you,  Grove 
and  myself  agreed  that  the  motion,  w^iich  occasioned 
it,  was  a  very  important  one  and  that  we  agreed  in 
sentiment  on  the  subject,  and  as  well  as  I  recollect 
the  speech  contains  the  substance  of  our  conversa 
tion  on  the  subject  of  the  motion  except  that  I 
thought  the  constitution  would  not  warrant  the 
giving  such  power  to  the  President  though  I  would 
not  have  made  the  objection  in  the  House  for  a 
reason  before  mentioned.  On  a  bill  of  a  similar 
nature  last  session  I  made  objection  of  the  same 
kind.  Indeed  I  am  certain  that  I  never  shall  con 
sent  to  give  such  a  power  to  any  President  (the 
privilege  to  lay  an  embargo  in  1793).  Grove  and 
myself  have  examined  the  journals  for  the  mes 
sage  of  the  President,  which  you  want,  but  have 
not  been  fortunate  enough  to  find  such  a  one,  the 
other  papers  he  will  send  you. 

"It  appears  to  me  that  proper  reflection  and  time 
will  convince  every  one  that  you  have  deserved  well 
of  the  State.  It  is  said  there  are  two  parties  in 
Congress,  but  that  fact  I  do  not  positively  know,  if 
there  are  I  know  that  I  do  not  belong  to  either,  but 


'  FIRST  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS.  77" 

what  is  strange  to  tell,  and  at  the  same  time  must 
be  a  convincing  proof  that  you  acted  independently, 
is,  that  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  neither 
of  these  parties  are  desirous  to  see  you  here  again."1 

The  State  elections  of  1794  were  influenced 
chiefly  by  the  stand  the  government  had  taken  in 
1793  on  the  question  of  neutrality  and  more  espe 
cially  in  North  Carolina,  where  Timothy  Blood- 
worth  of  New  Hanover  had  resigned  an  office  in 
the  State  government,  because  Governor  Spaight 
had  endorsed  Washington's  policy.  Bloodworth  had 
become  the  leader  of  an  almost  violent  opposition 
to  the  neutrality  proclamation  in  the  Wilmington 
district.  He  "  stood  for  the  legislature,"  and  was 
elected  by  a  large  majority.  The  people  had  sup 
ported  him  against  Washington !  In  the  Assem 
bly,  which  met  in  the  autumn,  Bloodworth  was  at 
once  made  Speaker,  and  one  year  later,  at  the  time 
of  the  Congressional  elections,  he  was  chosen  to 
succeed  Benjamin  Hawkins,  a  special  friend  of 
Washington,  in  the  United  States  Senate.2  This, 
with  the  result  of  the  general  elections,  showed  the 
growing  strength  of  the  Republican  party  and 
caused  Samuel  Johnston  to  exclaim  when  he  heard 
the  reports :  "O  tempora,  tempora !"  And  Wash 
ington,  to  help  the  cause  of  Federalism  in  the  South, 
at  once  named  Hawkins  Indian  Commissioner  for 
the  Southwest.  John  Macon  was  the  leader,  after 
Bloodworth,  of  the  new  forces  in  North  Carolina 
politics.  The  leaders  of  the  old  regime  lost  power 
entirely  and  entrenched  themselves,  whenever  it 
was  possible,  in  Federal  offices  from  one  end  of 
the  State  to  the  other. 

The  new  Congress  which  met  in  Philadelphia  in 
November,  1795,  was  not  of  a  temper  altogether 

1  >tacon  to  General  John  Steele,  Dec.  n,i794' 

2  Samuel  Johnston  to  James  Iredell,  Feb.  14,  1795. 


78  NATHANIEL,   MACON. 

pleasing  to  the  ardent  Federalists  who  had  con 
trolled  things  in  the  last  and  who  had  become  accus 
tomed  to  carry  their  measures  by  fair  means  or  foul. 
The  Federal  party  had  identified  the  Democratic 
societies  with  the  Republicans,  and  with  the  assist 
ance  of  the  President  these  had  been  brought  into 
complete  disrepute.1 

The  West  Pennsylvanians  had  been  suppressed  in 
a  manner  not  likely  to  conciliate  the  opponents  of 
the  government,  and  most  of  the  men,  who  now 
took  their  seats  in  the  House,  were  determined  to 
check  the  extravagance,  as  they  thought,  of  the 
administration,  notwithstanding  the  popularity  of 
Washington.  The  Republicans  were  in  a  majority, 
quite  a  safe  one  at  first.  What  had  taken  place  at 
the  polls  in  North  Carolina  had  taken  place  in  most 
of  the  States  south  of  Connecticut.  In  Boston, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and  Charleston, 
public  meetings  were  held  and  every  act  of  the 
President's  foreign  policy  severely  criticized.  Add  to 
this  the  effect  of  the  extra  session  of  the  Senate, 
its  defiant  attitude  toward  public  opinion,  its  rati 
fication  of  the  Jay  treaty  June,  1795,  by  a  strictly 
party  vote,  the  riots  in  Philadelphia,  which  threat 
ened,  as  honest  John  Adams  said,  to  break  down 
the  authority  of  the  Government,  and  we  have  a 
notion  of  the  excitement  in  the  country  and  the 
determination  of  the  new  Congress  to  remedy 
things.  It  was  not  a  tardy  coming  together  that 
December  as  it  had  been  when  the  previous  Con 
gress  met,  when  two  long  weeks  were  lost  in  get 
ting  a  quorum.  Not  a  day  was  now  lost,  and  what 
was  more  significant,  a  man  whom  most  people  took 
for  an  ardent  Republican  was  chosen  Speaker — 
Jonathan  Dayton  of  New  Jersey. 

i  Washington's  Correspondence,  sept.— Oct.,  1*64. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LEADER   OF   THE    NORTH    CAROLINA   DELEGATION, 
I795-I799. 

Thomas  Blount,  Nathan  Bryan,  Jesse  Franklin, 
"old  Matthew  Locke"  and  Absalom  Tatom,  with 
Nathaniel  Macon  as  leader,  constituted  the  chief 
men  of  North  Carolina's  delegation  in  the  Congress 
of  giants,  which  met  in  the  old  court  house  on  the 
corner  of  Sixth  and  Chestnut  streets  in  Philadelphia 
in  December  of  1795.  It  was  to  be  the  most  nota 
ble  congress  in  our  history  so  far,  as  one  of  the 
most  important  of  all.  The  delegation  of  which 
our  hero  was  becoming  the  acknowledged  leader 
was  not  composed  of  brilliant  men,  but  plain,  mid 
dle-class  representatives,  Southern  Puritans,  just 
such  men  as  would  have  been  good  Abolitionists 
fifty  years  later,  if  they  had  lived  in  another  section 
of  the  country.  Jesse,  Matthew,  Absalom  and 
Nathaniel  were  names  which  told  the  story  of  their 
birth  and  family;  and  they  were  men  who  believed 
in  Bible  doctrines  and  drew  their  illustrations  from 
Hebrew  history  and  were  not  apt  to  forget  their 
belief  or  yield  an  inch  to  the  "Powers  of  Evil."  The 
regaining  of  control  in  North  Carolina  by  those  who 
had  opposed  the  adoption  of  the  National  ^Constitu 
tion  in  1788,  which  was  completed  during  the  years 
1 794- '95,  brought  the  common  people,  Democrats 
of  the  country  squire  type,  into  places  of  public 
trust ;  men  whose  education  had  not  been  good,  and 
who  knew  nothing  at  all  of  international  politics, 


80  NATHANIEL,   MACON. 

but  who  had,  all  of  them,  been  staunch  Whigs  in 
1776,  and  who  had  seen  actual  service  in  the  war, 
or  who  had  certainly  never  been  suspected  of  giv 
ing  comfort  to  the  Tories.  They  were  just  such 
as  the  old  politicians,  statesmen  even,  could  not 
bear  to  see  in  high  places,  and  the  mention  of  whose 
names  brought  visions  of  anarchy  and  the  "rule  of 
the  many"  to  their  cultured  minds — "mobocrats," 
"red  Republicans,"  and  "Jacobins,"  were  the  names 
they  bore  with  Johnston,  Iredell  and  Hooper.  They 
did  not  pretend  to  know  so  much  about  statecraft, 
they  could  not  have  obtained  entree  to  Lady  Wash 
ington's  parlors,  but  they  knew  the  difference 
between  the  demands  of  popular  institutions  and 
special  interests.  And  according  to  the  testimony 
of  many  a  student  of  American  history,  our  genera 
tion  has  just  cause  to  be  thankful  to  those  simple- 
minded,  plain-looking  country  squires  whom  North 
Carolina  sent  to  Congress  in  1 794-^95 . 

To  lead  such  a  delegation  was  Macon's  high  call 
ing  during  the  stormy  years  just  ahead.  Macon's 
experience  and  seniority  of  service  in  the  National 
legislature  (though  he  was  only  thirty-seven  years 
old),  and  not  his  forensic  ability  or  powers  of  man 
ipulation,  gave  him  the  first  place  among  his  col 
leagues.  The  first  attack  on  the  strongholds  of  the 
party  in  power  was  made  by  Parker  of  Virginia 
and  Macon  of  North  Carolina,  when  the  response  to 
the  President's  speech  assumed  its  customary  tone 
of  fulsome  flattery1.  The  response  ran:  "contem 
plating  that  probably  unequalled  spectacle  of 
National  happiness,  which  our  country  exhibits,  to 
the  interesting  summary  which  you,  sir,  have  been 
pleased  to  make,  in  justice  to  our  own  feelings,  per 
mit  us  to  add  the  benefits  which  are  derived  from 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  131. 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.         81 

your  presiding  in  our  councils,  resulting  as  well 
from  the  undiminished  confidence  of  your  fellow  citi 
zens  as  from  your  zealous  and  successful  labors  in 
their  service."  Macon  objected  to  this  language, 
and,  with  Parker,  insisted  that,  not  only  should  it 
be  made  less  laudatory,  but  that  the  whole  cere 
mony  of  the  House  proceeding  in  a  body  to  pre 
sent  their  reply,  as  had  formerly  been  the  custom, 
should  be  modified  or  abolished  altogether.  He 
proposed  that  a  committee  of  three  be  delegated  to 
express  to  the  President,  in  simple  English,  the 
good  will  of  the  House  and  the  readiness  of  its 
members  to  cooperate  with  him  in  all  measures  look 
ing  to  the  good  of  their  common  country.  The 
plan  gained  ample  support  at  once,  and  the  reply 
to  the  President's  address  was  chastened  very  con 
siderably,  though  not  entirely  displaced  by  a  com 
mittee  as  suggested.  This  proposition  to-day  would 
appear  to  be  a  very  reasonable  one;  but  not 'so 
then.  It  caused  a  somewhat  angry  debate,  and 
those  who  favored  it  were  looked  upon  by  its  oppo 
nents  very  much  as  the  German  nobles  regard  the 
advocates  of  a  proposition  to  abolish  the  standing 
army.  But  those  days,  though  only  a  single  cen 
tury  has  passed,  were  very  different  from  ours ;  the 
festive  twenty-fifth  of  December  came  on  and  the 
members  of  Congress  all  remained  at  their  posts 
until  the  twenty-fourth,  which  was  on  Thursday, 
when  they  adjourned  until  the  following  Monday- 
two  days  were  all  the  holiday  they  gave  themselves. 
The  simple  hearts  of  that  day  loved  ceremony  far 
more  than  a  big  holiday  and  bodily  ease. 

The  presentation  to  Congress  by  Adet,  the  French 
envoy,  of  a  most  handsomely  wrought  and  fantas 
tic  flag  of  the  French  Convention  occupied  Con 
gress  some  hours  on  the  4th  January.     This  pledge 
6 


82  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

of  "everlasting  friendship"  was  first  sent  to  Wash 
ington,  who  detailed  an  American  army  officer  to 
present  it,  with  numerous  messages  from  the  Com 
mittee  of  Safety,  to  the  Representatives  of  the 
American  people.  The  message  is  in  part  as  fol 
lows:  "Citizens  Representatives,  the  connections 
which  nature,  reciprocal  events  and  a  happy  con 
currence  of  circumstances  have  formed  between  two 
free  nations,  can  not  but  be  indissoluble.  You  have 
strengthened  those  sacred  ties  by  declarations, 
which  the  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United 
States  has  made  in  your  name  to  the  National  Con 
vention  and  to  the  French  people1.  They  have  been 
received  with  rapture  by  a  nation  who  know  how 
to  appreciate  every  testimony  which  the  United 
States  have  given  to  them  of  their  affection.  The 
colors  of  both  nations,  united  in  the  centre  of  the 
National  Convention,  will  be  an  everlasting  evidence 
of  the  part  which  the  United  States  have  taken  in 
the  success  of  the  French  Republic."  (We  had 
refused  to  take  any  part,  as  was  known  and  talked 
everywhere.) 

"You  were  the  first  defenders  of  the  rights  of 
man  in  another  hemisphere.  Strengthened  by  your 
example,  and  endowed  with  an  invincible  energy, 
the  French  people  have  vanquished  Tyranny,  which, 
during  so  many  centuries  of  ignorance,  supersti 
tion  and  baseness,  had  enchained  a  generous  nation." 
After  much  more  of  this  kind,  the  message  con 
cludes:  "Doubt  it  not,  Citizens,  we  shall  finally 
destroy  the  combinations  of  tyrants.  You,  by  the 
picture  of  prosperity,  which,  in  your  vast  coun 
tries,  has  succeeded  to  a  bloody  struggle  of  eight 

*  Monroe  had  presented  the  American  fli*  to  the  Convention,  had 
made  a  fine  speech  on  the  occasion  and  had  receive  J  therefor  "  a  warm, 
fraternal  embrace"  from  the  president  of  that  body. 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.         83 

years;  we,  by  the  enthusiasm  which  glows  in  the 
breast  of  every  Frenchman.  Astonished  nations, 
too  long  the  dupes  of  perfidious  Kings,  Nobles,  and 
Priests  will  eventually  recover  their  rights  and  the 
human  race  will  owe  to  the  American  and  French 
nations  their  regeneration  and  a  lasting  peace/' 
The  reading  of  all  this  and  much  more  took  place 
in  the  hall  of  the  Representatives  and  it  pleased 
Macon  heartily,  though  more  because  of  the  grim 
aces  it  produced  on  the  faces  of  the  Federalists  than 
because  of  any  response  on  his  own  part  to  so  many 
happy  French  phrases.  Macon  had  lost  his  French 
nature  too  completely  to  enjoy  this  declamation  of 
his  former  countrymen.  He  was,  however,  a 
staunch  advocate  of  the  continued  binding  force  of 
the  French  treaty  of  1778  as  North  Carolinians  gen 
erally  were.  On  that  issue  the  Radicals  had  gained 
the  victory  at  the  polls  in  1794  and  '95 ;  and  later 
when  a  bill  was  about  to  be  passed  by  Congress, 
prohibiting  the  sale  of  French  prizes  in  American 
ports,  he  opposed  it,  recommending  a  continuance  of 
the  privilege,  notwithstanding  the  complications 
that  might  arise1. 

In  the  very  beginning  of  the  session,  Giles  pre 
sented  to  the  House  several  resolutions  and  peti 
tions  from  the  citizens  of  Virginia  protesting  against 
the  British  treaty  which  was  expected  soon  to  come 
before  that  body  for  final  settlement.  The  question 
agitating  the  country  and  occupying  the  minds  of 
politicians  was:  Can  the  Representatives  veto  the 
action  of  the  President  and  Senate  in  the  exercise 
of  their  constitutional  functions,  because  the  com 
pletion  of  those  acts  require  an  appropriation  the 
granting  of  which  is  exclusively  the  right  of  the  Rep 
resentatives  ?  The  Federalists  claimed  they  could 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  1342. 


84  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

not,  and  that  it  was  presumption  on  the  part  of  the 
House  to  interfere  with  the*treaty  by  refusing  to 
make  the  necessary  appropriation ;  the  Republicans, 
with  Jefferson  as  their  counsellor,  believed  to  the 
contrary,  and.  were  determined  to  defeat  the 
enforcement  of  a  treaty  which  they  claimed  sold  us 
out  to  England. 

It  would  hardly  be  in  place  here  to  review  the 
merits  and  demerits  of  the  Jay  treaty,  more  than  to 
say  that  it  was  a  partisan  measure,  and  it  was  so 
regarded  by  all  who  took  any  part  in  politics. 
Washington  had  sent  Chief  Justice  Jay  to  England 
as  Special  Envoy.  Jay  was  strictly  English  in 
sentiment,  and  so  looked  upon  by  Congress,  a 
man  whose  brother  was  an  officer  in  the  Eng 
lish  army,  and  who  had  himself  given  proof 
enough  of  his  own  admiration  for  the  politics  of  that 
country.  When  he  appeared  at  Court,  George  III. 
received  him  graciously,  remarking  at  the  same 
time:  "I  am  sure  you  can  succeed  in  your  mission." 
After  the  treaty  was  finally  agreed  upon  Wash 
ington  determined  to  have  it  become  law  by  procla 
mation  according  to  the  custom,  and  so  he  was  more 
than  impatient  at  the  threatened  opposition  of  the 
House.  But  the  Republicans  came  fresh  from  the 
people ;  they  believed  it  their  duty  to  annul  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  Government  and  a  partisan  Senate, 
and  they  were  decidedly  in  the  majority,  which,  for 
the  first  time  in  our  history,  presented  the  specta 
cle  of  a  government  divided  into  opposite  camps 
and  thus  rendered  almost  helpless. 

The  long  and  bitter  fight  was  begun  by  Living 
ston  of  New  York,  when  he  introduced  on  March 
2,  1796,  a  resolution  calling  on  the  President  to 
submit  to  the  House,  before  the  appropriation  could 
be  voted,  the  secret  papers  and  instructions  relative 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.    85 

to  Jay's  mission.1  From  that  time  until  March  3ist 
a  fierce  war  of  words  was  kept  up,  and  it  seemed 
to  some  that  the  Government  would  go  to  pieces ; 
but  the  resolution  finally  passed  and  Washington 
was  called  on  for  the  papers.  He  refused  peremp 
torily,  which  was  the  cause  of  no  little  glee  among 
the  opponents  of  the  resolution.  Until  that  time 
the  President  had  maintained  an  absolute  silence  on 
the  subject.  This  had  annoyed  and  puzzled  both 
parties.  This  refusal  appeared  to  be  a  victory  for 
the  Federalists,  since,  as  they  were  convinced,  the 
influence  of  Washington  given  decidedly  in  their 
favor  would  so  dishearten  many  of  the  Republicans 
as  to  cause  them  to  give  up  their  plan.  The  sub 
ject  was  opened  again  April  I3th,  when  Sedgwick 
introduced  a  resolution  providing  for  the  appropria 
tions  necessary  to  the  execution  of  the  Jay  treaty; 
and  for  several  others  which  were  now  all  thrown  to 
gether,  according  to  ancient  Roman  log-rolling  ma- 
noeuvers,  in  order  to  secure  the  money  necessary  for 
the  one  which  was  expected  to  be  defeated.  These 
extra  treaties  settled  our  relations  (i)  with  the 
Indians  on  the  Ohio,  (2)  with  Algiers,  (3)  with 
Spain,  all  of  which  the  Southern  and  Western  mem 
bers  were  desirous  of  carrying  into  effect  at  once. 
The  en  bloc  method  was  soon  defeated  by  the 
Republican  majority  and  each  treaty  was  made  to 
stand  or  fall  according  to  its  own  merits.  All  were 
passed  favorably  in  a  single  day  except  the  one 
with  Great  Britain,  and  then  came  the  test  of  party 
strength  on  the  final  and  great  measure  of  the  ses 
sion.  The  debate  lasted  more  than  two  weeks  and 
there  had  never  been  a  dispute  in  Congress  which 
brought  forward  such  an  array  of  able  disputants, 
or  one  in  which  more  intense  partizanship  was  tnan- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  426. 


86  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ifested.  The  Republicans  had  begun  the  session 
with  presenting  petitions  from  their  constituents; 
the  Federalist  petitions  were  introduced  in  ever 
increasing  volume  as  the  debate  went  on;  Boston 
held  town  meetings  against  those  Virginia  leaders 
who  disputed  the  right  of  the  East  to  rule;  New 
York  had  a  riotous  meeting  and  Philadelphia 
threatened  to  fall  upon  the  members  of  the  House 
and  chase  them  from  the  city  unless  they  made  the 
necessary  appropriation ;  the  English  Charge  des 
Affairs  sent  a  message  to  the  Federalists  that  post 
horses  were  held  in  readiness  to  carry  an  order  for 
the  evacuation  of  the  posts  which  England  held, 
contrary  to  former  treaty  stipulations  within  the 
bounds  of  the  United  States,  if  only  the  appropria 
tions  were  granted.  When  all  these  influences  were 
bearing  down  upon  the  Republicans  and  when  sev 
eral  of  their  weak-kneed  members  were  getting  sick 
or  receiving  urgent  messages  to  come  home  to  see 
their  wives,  Fisher  Ames  of  Massachusetts  arose  to 
make  that  famous  and  impassioned  speech  in  favor 
of  the  treaty — the  address  which  so  excited  Judge 
Iredell,  then  on  the  Supreme  Court  bench,  as  to 
cause  him  to  exclaim  from  the  gallery  of  the  House : 
"Great  God,  he's  great!"  and  which  brought  from 
his  companion,  John  Adams,  an  oath  or  two  of 
praise.  At  the  close  of  Ames'  address  the  Federal 
ists  pressed  the  question  for  a  vote,  thinking  the  day 
had  been  won,  but  without  success.  The  pressure 
had  become  so  strong  that  still  another  Republi 
can,  Patton  from  New  Jersey,  became  ill ;  Varnum, 
too,  was  absent;  Freeman,  a  member  from  New 
Hampshire,  who  had  voted  with  the  Republicans 
in  the  beginning  of  the  session,  was  away  on  leave, 
and  Duvall's  newly  elected  successor — a  Maryland 
Republican — postponed  taking  his  seat  until  a  day 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.         87 

* 

or  two  after  the  vote.  All  this  was  thinning  the 
ranks  of  the  opposition  while  the  Federalists  were 
present  in  full  strength.  But  Macon  and  every 
member  of  his  delegation  were  present  and  moved 
a  postponement  of  the  final  vote  until  the  faint 
hearted  could  be  comforted.  Macon's  motion  for 
delay  and  the  discussion  of  the  ninth  article  of  the 
treaty,  which  touched  the  interests  of  all  North 
Carolinians  living  on  the  original  Grenville  lands, 
postponed  matters  for  only  one  day  when  the  yeas 
and  nays  on  the  Jay  treaty  showed  fifty-one  for 
the  appropriation  and  forty-eight  against.  William 
Barry  Grove  of  Cumberland  was  the  only  represen 
tative  from  North  Carolina  who  voted  for  the 
treaty1. 

It  was  not  because  of  Macon's  public  and  con 
spicuous  activity  in  this  long  debate  that  the  subject 
has  been  gone  over  somewhat  in  detail ;  but 
because  he  remained  firm  at  his  post  and  kept  his 
friends  in  their  position  and  on  their  guard.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  right  or  wrong,  good  policy  or 
bad,  that  has  been  considered  here,  but  the  faithful 
ness  of  Macon  to  the  creed  he  professed — that  of  a 
strict  constructionist  and  States-Rights'  man.  By 
nature  he  would  have  been  disposed  to  scrutinize 
very  closely  any  call  for  an  appropriation,  but  the 
question  which  he  asked  himself  in  this  measure 
was:  "Is  it  to  the  interests  of  North  Carolinians?" 
just  as  most  others  were  asking  the  same  question 
whether  they  lived  south  or  north  of  the  line  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland.  The  only  letter  _  of 
his  bearing  on  the  events  of  that  important  session 
now  extant  was  written  from  the  Hall  of  the  Repre 
sentatives,  April  1 5th,  1796.  After  some  remarks 
about  the  different  treaties  he  says:  "The  British 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong  ,  ist  Sess.,  1280-1292. 


88  NATHANIEL   MACON. 


• 


treaty  is  to  be  acted  on  to-day,  and  will,  /  suppose, 
produce  some  debating.  It  is  very  doubtful  what 
the  vote  of  the  House  will  be  on  it.  My  opinion  is 
that  no  vote  in  favor  of  it  can  be  obtained.  I  have 
enclosed  Col.  Ashe1  the  debates  on  Mr.  Livingston's 
motion  to  request  certain  papers  from  the  Presi 
dent."1 

The  other  matters  in  which  Macon  took  active 
part  during  the  closing  days  of  the  session  were 
the  admission  of  Tennessee  as  a  State  and  the  bill 
for  increasing  the  salaries  of  public  officers.  He 
favored  the  admission  of  Tennessee  with  two  Sena 
tors  and  two  Representatievs,  which  latter  would 
have  been  unusual  and  strictly  speaking  unlawful. 
The  census  of  Tennessee  showed  a  voting  popula 
tion  of  sixty-seven  thousand.  The  ratio  of  repre 
sentation  was  thirty-four  thousand,  which,  if  the 
census  of  the  State  was  to  be  accepted,  gave,  with 
only  one  representative,  an  unrepresented  fraction 
of  thirty-three  thousand.  Macon  claimed  that  two 
representatives  ought  to  be  allowed  in  view  of  this, 
and  of  course  it  was  against  his  political  creed  to 
discredit,  as  some  were  doing,  a  census  taken  by 
order  of  a  State,  or  even  a  prospective  State1.  The 
House  disagreed  and  allowed  the  new  State  one 
representative  until  the  next  general  census.  On 
the  subject  of  increased  salaries,  he  favored  a  reduc 
tion  rather  than  an  increase.  The  argument  that 
respectability  of  government  official  living  and  the 
need  of  entertaining  distinguished  foreigners  had 
no  influence  with  him.  His  claim  was  that  the 
officers  should  live  beneath  their  incomes  and  set 
the  pace  for  a  plain,  simple  life  which  might  be  an 
object  lesson  to  those  foreigners  on  account  of 
whose  visits  so  much  was  claimed. 

1  John  Baptiste  Ashe  of  Halifax. 

2  Macon  to  John  R.  Eaton,  April  15,  1796. 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  1818,  1474 


LEADER  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.  89 

The  defeat  of  the  Republicans  on  the  Jay  treaty 
was  a  sore  disappointment  to  their  leaders,  but  it 
was  the  cause  of  Jefferson's  return  to  political  life 
from  which  he  had  retired  nearly  three  years  be 
fore.  He  had  watched  closely  the  movements  of 
the  Federalists  and  counseled  regularly  the  leaders 
of  the  opposition ;  his  advice  at  the  beginning  of 
the  session  had  been  to  set  aside  the  treaty  by 
refusing  the  appropriation,  which  was  "their  right 
to  do."  Madison  wrote  him  almost  daily  how  mat 
ters  stood,  and  still  further,  Madison  had  been 
suggesting  to  Jefferson,  as  early  as  December  pre 
ceding,  ' 'unpleasant  truths"  about  the  latter  becom 
ing  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  In 
fact  a  poll  of  Pennsylvania  had  been  taken  at  the 
order  of  the  Republicans  in  Congress  for  the  pur 
pose  of  determining  the  party's  strength  with  Jef 
ferson  as  its  leader,  which  had  shown  the  chances 
strongly  in  their  favor.  When  the  question  of  de 
feating  the  British  treaty  was  decided  adversely, 
Madison  wrote  at  once  to  Jefferson  representing 
that  he  alone  could  bring  success  to  their  cause. 
Monroe,  who  was  still  in  Paris,  was  informed  of 
this  plan.  In  June  Jefferson  decided  to  enter  the 
race  and  in  July  he  wrote  most  hopefully  to  Mon 
roe  about  the  hasty  coming  of  the  day  of  relief.1 

Macon  remained  in  Philadelphia  through  all  the 
closing  days  of  the  session,  when  only  a  bare  quo 
rum  of  members  were  in  their  seats,  paying  atten 
tion  to  the  long,  dry  reports  of  the  Finance  Com 
mittee  on  the  condition  of  the  Treasury.  It  was  a 
part  of  his  creed  to  be  present  every  day  in  the  ses 
sion.  June  ist,  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
he  set  out  for  Buck  Spring,  where  he  was  accus- 

i  See  author's  thesis  :  Jefferson's  Rueckkehr  zur  Politik  in  1796.  Leip 
zig,  1899- 


90  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

tomed  to  take  the  place  of  a  regular  field  hand  dur 
ing  the  summer.  And  it  is  significant  that  his 
letters  are  at  all  times  as  much  given  up  to  com 
ments  on  the  state  of  the  crops,  work  on  the  planta 
tion  and  the  condition  of  the  markets  as  were  those 
of  Washington  himself. 

It  is  not  probable  that  Macon  returned  to  North 
Caroling  that  June  without  knowing  the  plans  of 
Madison,  Giles  and  Gallatin,  another  rising  star  in 
the  Republican  firmament,  as  to  the  Presidential 
election  which  was  coming  on,  and  such  good  politi 
cians  as  Jefferson's  followers  were  not  likely  to 
leave  him  in  the  dark  or  to  leave  room  for  any  mis 
understandings.  North  Carolina  was,  during  the 
decade  following  1789,  an  uncertain  State  in  a 
presidential  election,  and  for  the  reason  that  the 
ablest  men,  with  the  exception  of  Willie  Jones,  were 
contesting  with  the  popular  leaders  the  control  of 
affairs.  Johnston  and  his  friends,  with  the  mighty 
leverage  of  Washington's  name,  were  not  easily  rele 
gated  to  a  back  seat.  During  the  summer  and  early 
autumn  months,  the  party  of  Jefferson  was  at  work 
throughout  the  country;  in  North  Carolina,  its 
leaders  were  the  same  as  of  old,  for  Willie  Jones 
was  again  a  candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  Assembly. 
John  Macon  was  a  leader  in  the  State  Senate ;  Tim 
othy  and  Thomas  Bloodworth,  in  the  Wilmington 
district,  were  directing  things  according  to  Jeffer 
son's  plans.  In  the  election  of  1792,  North  Caro 
lina's  vote,  as  has  been  seen,  had  been  given  unani 
mously  to  Washington  for  President,  and  to  Clin 
ton,  of  New  York,  for  Vice-President ;  in  1796 
it  was  thought  the  Federalists  could  secure  four  of 
the  electoral  votes  to  Adams,  and  every  effort  was 
made  to  do  this,  but  without  avail.  Six  votes  in 
all  were  now  asked  of  the  South  for  Adams,  but  as  it 


NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.  91 

turned  out  only  two  were  given :  one  from  Virginia 
and  one  from  North  Carolina,  all  the  others  being 
cast  for  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  Radicals  won,  and 
very  much  to  the  chagrin  of  some  of  the  best  men 
in  the  country.  John  Marshall  deplored,  in  a  let 
ter  to  Iredell,  this  disposition  of  North  Carolinians 
to  follow  the  erratic  course  of  his  own  State.1  In 
producing  this  result,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  leader  of  the  State's  delegation  in  the  House 
had  a  share,  though,  there  appears  nowhere  any 
record  of  his  activity  in  that  first  trial  of  strength 
between  Adams  and  Jefferson. 

Washington's  address  delivered  to  the  Houses 
at  the  beginning  of  the  next  session,  reminding  men 
as  it  did  of  his  final  withdrawal  from  public  life, 
occasioned  "a.  good  deal  of  debate.  The  Federalists, 
making  use  for  the  last  time,  as  they  thought,  of 
his  great  popularity,  were  anxious  to  carry  the  reply 
to  the  greatest  extreme  of  adulation,  mixing  in,  at 
the  same  time,  as  much  as  possible  of  their  politics. 
The  Republicans  would  not  risk,  as  was  thought,  the 
semblance  of  opposition,  lest  their  actions  should 
excite  violent  criticism.  But  Macon  and  eleven 
others  had  the  hardihood  to  brave  public  opinion 
and  vote  against  the  address  on  the  ground  of  its 
being  too  laudatory.2  Among  those  who  voted 
with  Macon  was  a  tall,  thin,  dark-visaged  man, 
some  years  before  a  country  school  teacher  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  but  now 
Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee.  Macon  had  helped 
bring  that  cadaverous-looking  backwoodsman  into 
the  House  by  vigorously  advocating  the  admission  of 
Tennessee  at  a  former  session.  The  two  men  were 
much  alike  in  character,  though  they  were  not  to 

1  Iredell's  I/fe  and  Correspondence,  by  McKee,  II.,  482. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  1668 


92  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

discover  this  until  forty  years  later,  when  the  Ten- 
nesseean  declared  from  the  President's  chair  ever 
lasting  war  on  .the  United  States  Bank.  For  the 
present  the  man  with  his  hair  tied  up  in  an  eel-skin 
was  content  to  express  himself  in  a  sarcastic 
remark  about  Washington  and  by  a  negative  vote 
which  was  to  Macon,  perhaps,  a  recommendation 
for  independence.  To  the  great  majority  of  the 
Representatives  it  was  an  exceedingly  bad  begin 
ning.  Macon's  opposition  to  0  the  address  was  in 
keeping  with  his  past  policy ;  he  respected  and  hon 
ored  Washington,  eulogized  him  to  the  highest 
degree  as  long  as  he  lived,  though  he  never  claimed 
him  as  a  kinsman,  as  he  might  have  done.  The 
address  really  expressed  a  declaration  in  the  first 
paragraph,  and  others  in  the  last,  which  reflected 
on  Macon's  whole  political  career,  and  he  was  too 
honest  to  vote  for  a  measure,  with  a  Jesuitical  reser 
vation  in  mind,  to  avoid  criticism.  The  resolutions 
contained  in  the  address  expressed  what  the  Repub 
licans  could  not  admit,  and  if  blame  attaches  to  any 
one  on  this  point,  it  is  not  to  the  twelve  negative 
voters. 

The  first  object  of  Macon's  special  displeasure  in 
the  short  session  of  Congress  was  Washington's 
plan  of  a  National  university.  Madison  reported 
from  the  committee  appointed  to  take  into  consid 
eration  the  part  of  Washington's  address  recom 
mending  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution, 
the  following  resolution :  "That  it  is  at  present 
expedient  that  authority  should  be  given  to  enroll 
proper  persons  to  receive  in  trust  pecuniary  dona 
tions  in  aid  of  the  donations  already  given,  toward 
the  establishment  of  a  university  within  the  District 
of  Columbia."  Madison  argued  in  favor  of  the 
resolution,  claiming  that  Congress  was  in  no  way 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.  93 

called  on  to  obligate  itself  to  its  support ;  that  it  was 
only  to  enable  gifts  of  private  individuals  to  be 
accepted  and  applied.  He  stated  that  the  State  of 
Virginia  had  given  Washington  fifty  shares  in  the 
Potomac  Canal  Company,  which  he  refused  to 
accept  for  his  own  use,  but  which  he  did  accept  to 
be  used  in  the  cause  of  education,  and  that  Wash 
ington  now  offered  these  shares  to  such  an  institu 
tion  as  the  resolution  contemplated.  Madison  added 
that  others  were  offering  lands  for  the  same  pur 
pose.  Livingston,  of  New  York,  changed  his  atti 
tude  after  hearing  this  statement,  and  others  were 
in  favor  of  appointing  trustees  for  "an  university 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,"  so  that  the  plan 
seemed  about  to  be  agreed  to ;  but  a  motion  to  post 
pone  the  subject  prevailed  by  a  vote  of  thirty-seven 
to  thirty-six,  and  Washington's  gift  was  refused. 
It  was  turned  in  another  direction,  and  became  the 
nucleus  of  the  endowment  of  Washington  College, 
now  Washington  and  Lee  University,  in  Virginia. 
Macon  opposed  the  University,  not  because  of  indif 
ference  to  higher  education,  but  from  repugnance  to 
increasing  the  national  establishment,  and  from  a 
fear  that  it  would  somehow  or  other  necessitate  an 
appropriation.1  Giles  and  Venable,  of  Virginia, 
opposed  the  plan  from  similarly  overstrained  notions 
of  States'  rights. 

At  this  session  the  Connecticutt  members  made  a 
vigorous  effort,  in  the  form  of  a  resolution,  to 
compel  the  numerous  debtor  states  (states  which, 
in  the  assumption  of  State  debts  by  the  Union,  were 
left  with  balances  due  the  old  confederacy  now  due 
the  United  States)  to  pay  their  arrears  into  the 
treasury.  North  Carolina's  debt  to  the  Union  was 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong  ,  2d  Sess.,  1698-1711. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  2<3  Sess.,  1813-1816. 


94  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

$501,000,  with  interest  for  three  years;  New  York 
owed  more  than  two  million.2  There  was  a  strong 
sentiment  in  North  Carolina  that  this  debt  was  not 
fairly  estimated  which,  in  fact,  was  not  without 
foundation.  Macon  made  several  short  speeches 
against  the  proposed  plan  of  compelling  payment, 
and  he  was  joined  by  Dempsey  Burges,  his  col 
league,  in  an  enthusiastic,  if  not  very  wise,  plea  for 
North  Carolina  and  in  favor  of  the  sentiment  pre 
vailing  there  against  payment.  He  closed  as  fol 
lows:  "  North  Carolina,  far  removed  from  the 
seat  of  public  information,  and  with  little  advan 
tage  of  frequent  commercial  intercourse,  had  not 
the  opportunity  of  equal  benefit  from  the  pittance 
of  the  rigid  economy  which  her  agents  had  left  her 
citizens.  With  honest  indignation,  she  now  reflects 
that  her  public  securities  are  swept  away  by  foreign 
ers  and  citizens  who,  with  more  prompt  information, 
perverted  her  every  village  and  almost  every  farm 
as  the  enemy  in  time  of  war,  and  with  little  less 
fatality  and  almost  without  money  and  without 
price.  *  *  * 

"North  Carolina,  sir,  claims,  her  representatives 
conceive,  she  may  with  modest  decency,  that  the 
claims  contained  in  the  resolution  on  your  table,  if 
not  relinquished,  should  be  suspended.1  *  *  *  ' 

Burges  expressed  the  views  of  the  North  Carolina 
delegation  when  he  declared  that  the  claims  against 
the  State  should  be  relinquished,  though  not  all 
had  such  confused  notions  about  the  foundation  on 
which  those  claims  were  based.  These  lines  quoted 
from  Burges,  as  they  were  directed  to  his  constitu 
ents,  show  also  how  the  people  of  his  State  felt, 
and  that  they  were  prejudiced  against  any  claim  of 
the  United  States  on  account  of  the  sharp  manoeu- 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong ,  2d  Sess.,  1800-1801. 


LEADER  OF  NORTH   CAROLINA  DELEGATION.         1)5 

vers  of  Northern  financiers  in  getting  possession  of 
the  State  securities  just  prior  to  the  passage  of  the 
Assumption  Bill  in  1/90.  New  York  joined  North 
Carolina  in  the  protest  against  the  above-named 
resolution,  and  these,  with  the  general  support  of  the 
Southerners,  postponed  indefinitely  a  measure 
threatening  at  that  time  so  much  commotion,  partic- 
marly  in  New  York,  where  the  debt  was  so  great. 

Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt,  the  present  President's 
great  uncle,  and  Jacob  Mark  had  presented  a  peti 
tion  to  Congress  nearly  a  year  before  this,  asking 
for  protection  in  the  mining  and  manufacture  of 
iron.  They  had  engaged  miners  and  workers  in 
Europe,  and  had  brought  them  to  America  with  a 
view  to  establishing  the  proposed  industry  on  a  firm 
basis.  A  committee  of  Congress  considered  their 
application,  and  reported  a  resolution  in  their  favor, 
recommending  the  giving  to  them  of  any  mines  they 
might  discover  and  open  on  the  public  lands  of  the 
United  States,  and  further  guaranteeing  them  undis 
turbed  possession  for  years,  "the  said 

applicants  to  render  an  equitable  proportion  of  the 
gross  products  to  the  government  as  a  co-partner." 
Henderson,  of  New  Jersey,  and  Gallatin  were  will 
ing  to  grant  the  protection  asked ;  but  Macon,  alto 
gether  at  variance  from  the  policy  of  his  party  in 
North  Carolina,  opposed  the  resolution,  saying  "such 
a  resolution  would  give  a  monopoly  of  all  the 
mines  of  the  United  States.  The  best  policy,  I 
believe,  in  all  such  cases  is  to  leave  the  business  to 
the  industry  of  our  citizens.  They  will  work  the 
mines  if  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do  so ;  if  not,  I  do 
not  want  to  offer  them  any  inducement  to  do  it."1 
This  was  outlining  in  the  fewest  possible  words  the 
policy  of  his  later  political  life,  as  well  as  the  policy 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ad  Sesp..  1819-1820. 


5/1)  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

of  one  of  our  great  political  parties  for  many  years. 
The  Republican  party  was,  however,  at  that 'time, 
as  has  been  noted,  advocating  a  protective  tariff 
policy  for  infant  industry,  and  at  home,  Macon  him 
self  would  have  voted  for  bounties  to  such  begin 
ners  in  any  promising  undertaking. 

In  the  long  debates  of  this  session  on  direct  and 
/indirect  taxation,  Ai^cun  took  no  part,  though  he 
\  was  in  principle  favorable  to  direct  taxes — the  same 
that  Jefferson  constantly  advocated  but  never 
attempted  to  put  into  practice,  iku  wucii  those  most 
pathetic  petitions  of  some  emancipated  negroes  from 
North  Carolina,  praying  relief  from  persecution  un 
der  a  recent  statute  of  the  State  against  their  free 
dom  were  presented,  he  rather  reluctantly  spoke 
against  their  reception  by  the  House.  The  Nich 
olson  negroes,  for  such  were  their  names,  with 
two  others  from  Eastern  North  Carolina,  had  been 
given  their  freedom  by  their  masters;  but  when 
a  stricter  policy  regarding  the  manumission  of 
slaves  was  adopted,  and  a  law  passed  allowing 
any  one  to  take  up  negroes  to  whose  freedom  the 
State  had  not  consented,  and  sell  them  into  slavery 
again,  they  had  been  compelled  to  flee  the  State 
or  go  back  into  bondage.  They  were  then  in 
Philadelphia,  and  asking  the  interference  of  Con 
gress.  Macon  said :  "  No  man  wishes  to  encour 
age  petitions  more  than  I,  and  no  man  has  con 
sidered  the  subject  more.  These  men  can  not  re- 
-  ceive  any  aid  from  the  general  government ;  but 
by  application  to  the  State,  justice  will  be  done 
them.  Trials  of  this  kind  have  very  frequently  been 
brought  on  in  all  the  different  Courts  of  that  State, 
and  very  often  they  have  ended  in  the  freedom  of 
the  slaves.  I  think  it  a  very  delicate  subject  for 
the  general  government  to  act  on :  and  I  shall  not 
be  sorry  if  the  petition  is  sent  back."  This  some- 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.  97 

what  heartless  view  was   Macon's  life-long  policy 
on  this  subject. 

Macon  was  again  active  when  the  proposition  for 
increasing  the  salaries  of  the  President  and  mem 
bers  of  Congress  came  up.  Salaries  were  large 
enough,  he  thought;  the  principle  of  increasing 
them  did  not  suit  him,  and  he  was  fond  of  saying, 
"I  oppose  the  plan  in  toto."  In  order  to  defeat  it, 
he  moved  for  postponement  till  March  4,  when  the 
session  would  close  by  limitation ;  but  Gallatin  came 
to  his  aid,  and  a  speedy  vote  was  secured  against 
the  bill,  the  yeas  and  nays  being  requested  by  its 
opponents.2  But  this  was  not  to  be  the  end  of 
Macon's  opposition  to  the  increasing  of  salaries ;  for 
on  the  day  following  the  counting  of  the  votes  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  a  resolution  was 
introduced  and  passed  requiring  a  committee  to  be 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  President's 
household  furniture  and  report  any  needs.  And 
Macon's  friend,  Sedgwick,  was  appointed  chairman 
of  the  committee.  Everybody  knew  at  once  what 
kind  of  report  would  be  made.  On  February  25  a 
bill  was  introduced  recommending  fourteen  thou 
sand  dollars  for  repairing  and  improving  the  furni 
ture  for  the  President-elect  as  soon  as  Washington 
retired.  Honest  farmer  Macon  began  to  see  how 
desirous  some  people  were  for  money.  He  had 
never  charged  a  cent  more  than  his  actual  mileage, 
when  he  had  the  privilege  of  collecting  double 
mileage.  His  six  dollars  a  day  was  amply  suffi 
cient  for  meeting  his  expenses  while  attending  the 
sessions  of  Congress,  and  so  he  could  not  under 
stand  how  others  could  not  get  along  on  their 
allowances.  As  was  to  be  expected,  he  spoke  out 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  ad  Bess,,  2023. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  2104-2105. 


98  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

against  the  bill,  and  more  than  once.  He  reviewed 
the  whole  practice  of  furnishing  apartments  for  the 
Presidents  of  the  old  Congress,  declaring  that  that 
officer  received  no  salary,  and  that  furnishing  him 
apartments  was  but  natural.  Sitgreaves  wished  to 
correct  him  by  pointing  out  the  fact  that  the  Presi 
dent  of  Congress  had  received  eighty-three  thou 
sand  dollars  in  two  years  to  supply  his  household; 
but  Macon  immediately  replied  with  the  question, 
"What  sort  of  money?"  which  was  enough  to  call 
to  mind  the  picture  of  the  worthless  Continental 
paper  which  went  begging  everywhere  at  that  time, 
and  in  which  the  officer  in  question  had  been  paid. 
He  added  a  little  later,  when  Smith,  of  New  Hamp 
shire  was  trying  to  convince  the  members  how 
small  a  sum  had  been  asked,  "I  do  not  know  how 
it  can  require  fourteen  thousand  dollars  to  repair 
furniture  which  at  first  cost  only  thirteen  thousand." 
The  bill  passed,  though,  by  a  vote 'of  sixty-three  to 
twenty-seven,  all  the  North  Carolina  delegates,  good 
farmers  that  they  were,  voting  with  the  minority.1 

The  opposition  of  Macon  to  almost  all  appropria 
tion  bills  had  given  him  something  of  a  name 
already,  and  it  drew  to  him  all  those  simple-lived 
men  like  himself  who  represented  the  small  farmer 
districts  in  the  South  and  West.  His  opposition 
was  such  that  most  of  those  who  disagreed  with  him 
took  pains  in  their  speeches  to  refer  respectfully  to 
his  arguments.  There  was  a  tendency  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  new  government  to  extrava 
gance;  the  members  of  Congress  managed  their 
mileage  so  adroitly  that  it  amounted  to  more  than 
a  third  of  their  pay  for  a  whole  session's  attendance. 
Twenty-six  thousand  for  mileage  and  seventy-six 
thousand  for  attendance  on  the  session  showed  how 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  4th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  2307-2319. 


LEADER  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.  99 

men  could  manage  to  increase  their  bills  against  the 
government  when  there  was  a  fair  excuse.  No  man 
scrutinized  these  items  of  expense  more  closely  than 
the  plain  gentleman  from  Buck  Spring,  who  never 
in  his  life  presented  an  account  to  the  government 
for  a  dollar  more  than  he  would  have  expected 
from  an  individual.1 

The  extra  session  of  Congress  convened  by  a 
proclamation  of  President  Adams  in  May,  1797,  for 
the  purpose  of  putting  the  country  in  a  state  of 
defence,  was  disappointing  in  the  extreme  to  the 
Federalists,  who  desired  to  organize  an  artillery 
corps,  to  strengthen  fortifications  and  call  out  more 
men  to  man  them,  to  build  nine  ships  of  war,  and  to 
provide  for  a  provisional  army,  subject  to  the  Pres- , 
ident's  call.  In  short,  a  strong  Federalist  program 
was  offered,  calling  for  a  general  system  of  taxation. 
This  system  was  to  take  the  form  of  duties  on 
imported  wines  and  liquors,  on  salt  and  paper,  parch 
ment,  etc.2 

Macon  opposed  the  fortifications  as  unnecessary, 
recommending  the  removal  of  men  in  the  well- 
equipped  forts  to  the  weaker  and  endangered  ones. 
But  contrary  to  what  might  have  been  expected  of 
such  a  staunch  States'  rights  man,  he  favored  the 
unqualified  granting  by  the  States  to  the  United 
States  of  the  lands  on  which  forts  were  built.  At 
the  time  this  extreme  friend  gf  State  sovereignty 
was  acting  rather  liberally,  the  representatives  of  the 
extremely  national  State  of  Massachusetts  refused 
to  grant  to  the  general  government  the  possession 
of  her  fortifications,  refusing  also  to  accept  supplies 
from  any  outside  source.3  Macon  furthermore 
opposed  the  equipment  of  additional  artillery  corps, 

1 1,etter  of  Macon  to  the  North  Carolina  Assembly,  Nov.  14,  1828, 
=  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  Extra  Sess.,  390  ;  Schouler,  I.,  366. 
3  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  Extra  Sess.,  302. 


100  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

and  would  not  think  of  supporting  the  measure  for 
a  provincial  army,  but  favored  as  a  substitute,  a 
bill  calling  on  the  States  for  a  national  militia.  A 
bill  looking  towards  this  end  was  proposed  by 
Blount  and  McDowell,  members  from  North  Caro 
lina,  and  heartily  approved  by  their  colleagues.1 
This  measure  was  meant  as  a  means  of  defence 
which  should  at  the  same  time  not  be  subject  entirely 
to  the  orders  of  the  President,  or,  in  other  words, 
its  advocates  would  avoid  the  establishment  of  an 
odious  standing  army,  which  it  was  claimed  the 
Federalists  desired.  On  the  subject  of  increasing 
the  navy,  Macon  was  not  to  be  moved,  no  matter 
how  threatening  the  attitude  of  foreign  powers; 
and,  when  the  bill  for  calling  into  service  some  large 
frigates  seemed  about  to  pass,  he  offered  a  substi 
tute  for  a  clause  of  the  bill  which  directed  the  Presi 
dent  to  use  the  proposed  ships  of  war  wherever  his 
judgment  directed.  The  Macon  substitute,  which 
was  first  ruled  out  of  order  but  finally  accepted,  pre 
scribed  the  use  to  which  the  vessels  should  be  put, 
i.  e.,  the  President  was  not  to  send  them  outside  of 
American  waters  except  as  convoys  to  trading  ves 
sels  in  threatened  seas.  In  a  short  time  he  changed 
-his  opinion  about  the  convoying  of  fleets  of  trading 
vessels,  opposing  the  plan  altogether,  lest  that  be 
used  as  a'n  excuse  for  sending  the  warships  abroad ; 
as  it  finally  appeared,  then,  the  new  frigates,  the 
number  of  which  was  reduced  to  three  instead  of 
nine,  as  formerly  called  for,  were  not  under  any 
conditions  to  leave  the  American  coasts.  This  was 
tying  the  President's  hands  with  a  vengeance,  and 
when  the  bill  came  before  the  Senate  it  was  almost 
immediately  returned  with  this  clause  rejected.  The 
Senate  also  objected  to  the  other  Republican  fea- 

•i  Anna's  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  Extra  Sess.,  322  on 


LEADER  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.    101 

tures  of  the  measure.  A  compromise  on  the 
amended  parts  of  the  bill  was  finally  agreed  upon, 
and  the  three  ships,  "United  States,"  "Constitution" 
and  "Constellation,"  were  allowed  to  be  built  and 
placed  at  Adams'  disposal  in  a  restricted  sense. 
These  ships  became  the  nucleus  of  our  navy,1  and 
did  fine  service  against  England  in  the  war  of  1812- 
1815. 

Considerable  sectional  feeling  was  manifested  in 
the  debates  on  these  amendments.  The  Republi 
cans  opposed  the  Federalist  program,  because  it 
granted  protection  to  trade  which,  as  they  said,  was 
chiefly  a  private  interest,  and  therefore  not  a  sub 
ject  for  national  legislation.  The  Eastern  mem 
bers  of  the  House  were  enraged  at  the  determined 
resistance  of  Republicans  south  and  west,  claiming 
that  it  was  a  narrow  agrarian  policy  which  actuated 
their  opponents.  Samuel  Sewall,  of  Massachusetts, 
declared :  "Gentlemen  who  depend  upon  agricul 
ture  for  everything,  need  not  put  themselves  to  the 
expense  of  protecting  the  commerce  of  the  country ; 
commerce  is  able  to  protect  itself  if  they  will  only 
suffer  it  to  do  so.  Let  those  States  which  live  by 
commerce  be  separated  from  the  confederacy.  I 
have  in  mind  those  people  who  live  by  commerce, 
and  I  can  not  concede  that  they  live  by  the  mere 
good-will  of  the  Union.  Let  them  be  abandoned, 
but  let  it  be  done  before  they  are  reduced  to  poverty 
and  wretchedness.  Their  collected  industry  and 
property  are  equal  to  their  own  protection,  and  let 
other  parts  of  the  confederacy  take  care  of  them 
selves."  To  which  Macon  replied  that  that  was 
such  language  as  he  had  never  before  heard  in  the 
House.2 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  Extra  Sess.,  364-366  ;  Schouler  I., 366. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  Extra  Sess.,  385. 


102  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Sewall  was  ruled  out  of  order,  but  he  was  the  only 
man  who  was  strictly  in  order.  The  two  parties  had 
been  at  daggers  drawn  for  weeks,  but  no  one  con 
fessed  the  real  cause  of  their  dispute  until  Sewall 
could  contain  himself  no  longer  and  spoke  out  his 
thoughts.  From  the  very  day  the  government  went 
into  operation,  even  long  before,  the  line  of  cleavage 
between  parties  had  been  drawn  by  agriculture  and 
commerce,  the  two  conflicting  interests  of  the  coun 
try.  The  establishment  of  an  agricultural  aristoc 
racy,  if  the  word  must  be  used  in  describing  men  of 
affairs  in  those  days,  or  the  establishment  of  a  com 
mercial  aristocracy,  were  the  questions  at  issue. 
The  Constitution  itself  represented  a  drawn  battle 
between  these  forces,  and  as  soon  as  it  became  the 
highest  law  of  the  land,  binding  alike  on  both  par 
ties,  each  began  seeking  allies  to  strengthen  itself  in 
order  to  g'ain  control  of  the  government  and  inter 
pret  in  its  own  interest  the  instrument  of  their  com 
promise;  commerce  sought,  through  Hamilton,  the 
aid  of  capitalized  wealth ;  agriculture  opposed,  and 
rallied  to  itself  the  powerful  influences  of  democratic 
ideas  which  were  at  that  time  epidemic  throughout 
the  western  world.  England,  the  commercial  country 
of  Europe,  naturally  came  to  the  help  of  her  elder 
daughter,  New  England,  and  with  this  came  neces 
sarily  the  revival  of  the  essentially  English  political 
institutions  in  America,  and  the  building  up  of  an 
English  party;  France,  the  hereditary  foe  of  Eng 
land,  attempted  a  similar  alliance  with  the  South, 
and  so  men  formed  Jacobin  clubs  and  wore  the  red 
cockade — Federalist  vs.  Republican  parties.  These 
two  forces  met  together  in  Pennsylvania — the 
recruiting  field  for  both — and  the  final  outcome  of 
the  election  of  1796  had  depended  on  the  turn  the 
struggle  took  there  amongst  a  motley  population  of 


OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION.        103 

Connecticutt  Yankees,  Virginia  backwoodsmen, 
English  Quakers  and  South  German  Protestants.1 
When  Washington,  the  great  neutral  character  in 
National  politics,  retired  in  1797,  the  way  was 
cleared,  and  both  parties  began  -the  race  for  a  victory 
in  1800.  Macon  was  one  who  had  wished  Washing 
ton  well  in  his  retirement,  and  was  evidently  not 
unwilling  to  see  him  out  of  the  way.  This  extra 
session  of  the  Fifth  Congress  was  one  stage  on  the 
way  toward  1800,  and  all  the  debating  and  hot 
words  about  ships,  armies  and  tariff  duties  were  not 
so  much  directed  for  and  against  Adams  as  for  and 
against  the  creed  he  stood  for — commercialism. 
Sewall  named  the  real  subject  in  dispute,  the  control 
of  the  government,  which  was  to  come  out  again 
and  again  in  Macon's  political  life  and  under  the 
most  different  names :  War  with  England,  National 
Banks  and  Protective  Tariff,  Slavery,  Nullification, 
and  finally,  twenty-five  years  after  his  death,  Civil 
War  and  Reconstruction — victory  of  an  economic 
principle  and  not  of  idealism  and  agitation. 

i  Annual  Register,  1796,  p.  90. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MACON  AND  THE  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY, 
I797-I8OI. 

The  Federalists  came  together  at  the  beginning  of 
the  regular  session  of  Congress,  in  November,  1797, 
determined  to  have  things  their  own  way,  and  they 
had  been  partially  united  by  the  trend  of  events  dur 
ing  the  summer :  France  had  been  seizing  New  Eng 
land  ships  on  the  high  seas,  and  the  Directory  had 
refused  to  recognize  Pinckney,  the  new  American 
envoy,  because  he  was  "an  aristocrat" ;  England,  too, 
was  still  complicating  the  situation  by  the  most  ill-ad 
vised  disregard  of  the  rights  of  neutrals ;  Hamilton, 
the  Federalist's  beau  ideal,  had  been  forced  into  a 
confession  of  an  adulterous  connection  with  the  wife 
of  a  \vorthless  wretch  employed  at  one  time  in  the 
Treasury  Department,  in  order  to  prove  himself  in 
nocent  of  what  he  regarded  as  a  worse  crime,  that  of 
misappropriating  public  funds  ;  Monroe  had  returned 
from  France  in  disgrace,  but  was  given  a  public 
dinner  in  Philadelphia,  with  the  Governor  and  Chief 
Justice  of  Pennsylvania  and  other  high  officials 
attending ;  the  violently  partisan  papers,  the  Monitor 
and  the  Minerva,  the  Aurora  and  the  National 
Gazette,  were  keeping  alive  all  the  quarrels,  scandals 
and  animosities  of  angry  politicians,  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  and  somewhat  in  triumphant  dig 
nity,  sat  Jefferson,  the  most  hated  opponent  of  the 
administration,  secure  in  the  Vice-President's  chair, 
there  to  \vatch  and  profit  by  all  the  blunders  of  a 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         105 

majority  none  too  well  agreed  among  themselves. 
Still  further,  the  Federalists  felt  the  chagrin  of  fail 
ure  at  the  last  session — a  failure  caused  also  by  the 
lack  of  unity  and  harmony  in  their  own  councils.1 

And  the  Republicans  were  not  better  satisfied; 
one  of  their  number,  William  Blount,  of  Tennessee, 
had  been  proven  guilty  of  treason ;  the  meddling  of 
the  French  Minister  Adet  in  political  affairs,  the  in 
defensible  behavior  of  France  toward  American  sea 
men,  and,  besides,  the  shifting,  vacillating  policy  of 
some  of  their  own  members  in  Congress,  who,  as 
Jefferson  himself  said,  "governed  by  the  panic  or 
prowess  of  the  moment,  flapped  as  the  breeze  blew, 
now  to  the  one  side,  now  to  the  other."2  And  the 
disappointment  and  bitterness  of  parties  increased 
when  these  disappointed  men  came  together;  for 
at  that  time  the  foreign  dangers  of  the  immediate 
future  seemed  suddenly  to  increase,  while  the  fail 
ure  of  great  business  houses  and  the  utter  ruin  of 
credit  darkened  the  prospects  of  individuals  and 
government  alike.  Robert  Morris,  the  financial 
wizard  of  the  Revolution,  succumbed  and  was  com 
pelled  to  lie  in  the  jails  of  Philadelphia  for  many 
long  months  because  of  inability  to  pay  his  debts. 
And  to  make  matters  worse  in  the  eyes  of  decent 
people,  these  representatives  of  the  people,  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  session,  fell  to  wrangling  over 
the'  miserable  and  disgraceful  personal  encounter 
between  two  members:  Griswold,  Federalist,  of 
Connecticut^  and  Lyon,  Republican,  frorn^  Ver 
mont.  This  encounter  began  with  Lyon  spitting  in 
Griswold's  face,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  House, 
was  kept  up  by  cuffs  and  blows,  with  canes  and  fire 
tongs,  off  and  on  for  two  days,  and  ended,  after 

1  SchdUler,  I.,  369-381. 

2  Jefferson's  Writings,  June  1797  ;  Schouler,  I.,  369-381. 


106  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

weeks  of  debate  and  vain  attempts  at  expulsion,  in 
the  House  finally  binding  both  under  oath  to  keep 
peace  during  the  remainder  of  the  session. 

This  was  not  an  encouraging  spectacle  to  the 
people  who  looked  forward  every  day  to  dangers  of 
the  gravest  kind ;  and  the  members  themselves  must 
have  been  heartily  ashamed  of  coming  together  a 
month  earlier  than  usual  for  the  purpose  of  attend 
ing  to  the  pressing  affairs  of  the  nation  only  to  join 
in  angry  disputes  and  wranglings  over  a  matter 
which  would  have  excited  only  ridicule  on  the 
meanest  street  of  the  meanest  town  in  the  country. 
One  month  of  time  and  thousands  of  dollars  were 
spent  in  settling  a  dispute  which  any  country  magis 
trate  could  have  settled  in  thirty  minutes.  It  looked, 
indeed,  to  many  as  if  partisanship  were  going  to 
wreck  the  National  Government;  yet  every  man 
from  the  philosophic  Gallatin  down  to  the  latest 
comer  had  a  voice  in  this  small  business. 

Macon  took  a  lively  interest  in  this  Lyon  affair, 
because,  like  the  others,  he  saw  that  the  opponents 
of  Lyon  were  demanding  his  expulsion  in  order  to 
get  rid  of  a  disagreeable  Republican.  Lyon  had 
begun  his  career  in  Congress  at  the  previous  session 
by  asking  to  be  excused  from  joining  the  procession 
of  the  House  to  the  President's  house  on  the  occa 
sion  of  the  reply  to  the  annual  message.  At  this 
session  he  asked  rather  impertinently  to  be  excused 
again  from  waiting  on  the  President,  which  brought 
on  some  sarcastic  debate  because,  as  some  one 
remarked,  this  exception  declared  that  the  others 
were  "making  fools  of  themselves."  Macon  favored 
the  granting  of  Lyon's  request,  because,  as  he  said, 
the  House  waited  on  the  President  out  of  respect 
for  that  officer,  and  respect  must  always  be  voluntary, 
besides  the  House  had  no  power  to  compel  a 'mem- 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         107 

ber  to  parade  himself  on  the  streets  of  Philadelphia. 
Later,  when  the  vote  for  the  expulsion  of  Lyon  for 
his  insult  to  Griswold,  which  certainly  was  pro 
voked,  was  about  to  be  taken,  Macon  declared  the 
punishment  too  great  for  the  offense,  that  he  would 
as  soon  be  hanged  as  expelled  in  that  way  from  a 
seat  in  the  House,1  but  after  the  second  encounter 
between  Lyon  and  Griswold,  brought  on  by  the 
latter,  he  favored  the  expulsion  of  both  members, 
which,  however,  could  not  be  done,  since  a  two- 
thirds  vote  is  required  to  expel,  which  neither  party 
had ;  and  besides  the  Federalists  were  not  willing  to 
pair  Griswold  with  Lyon,  who,  to  be  sure,  made  a 
sorry  figure  among  his  aristocratic  friends  from 
Virginia. 

The  first  speech  of  considerable  length  Macon 
made  in  Congress  was  on  the  Nicholas  resolution 
for  curtailing  the  expense  of  foreign  intercourse. 
Adams  had  called  for  a  larger  sum  than  usual  for 
that  item  of  the  budget;  he  had  secured  a  recom 
mendation  from  Washington  to  the  Senate  that  his 
son,  John  Quincy,  a  briefless  attorney,  only  twenty- 
four  years  old,  should  be  appointed  Minister  to 
Prussia,  and  the  Senate  had  approved,  but  the  coun 
try  was  not  convinced  that  merit  alone  actuated  the 
President.  Nicholas,  of  Virginia,  moved  a  resolu 
tion  for  retrenchment  by  abolishing  the  post  at  Ber 
lin  and  reducing  the  allowances  for  other  diplomatic 
establishments.  Macon  declared,  what  was  no 
doubt  true  to  him,  that  all  the  foreign  ministers  who 
had  been  in  this  country  from  July  4,  1776,  to  his 
day  had  done  more  harm  than  ours  abroad  had  done 
good;  that  he  was  almost  ready  to  abolish  the  for 
eign  establishments  altogether;  he  had  heard  it 
declared  that  Jefferson's  disappointment  in  the 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  962,  1008. 


108  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

recent  election  had  inspired  Nicholas'  motion,  and 
that  the  Southerners  were  supporting  that  sentiment 
of  the  Vice-President,  that  these  Southern  Republi 
cans  were  even  attempting  to  overthrow  the  Govern 
ment.  "I  will  not,"  he  continued,  "boast  of  what 
the  Southern  States  have  done,  but  certainly  I  may 
say  what  they  have  not  done:  they  have  not  been 
promoters  of  banks,  funding  and  excise  systems, 
Stamp  Acts,  and  so  forth."  He  closed  by  "assert 
ing  that  the  House  had  a  right  to  regulate  the  sala 
ries  of  foreign  ministers,  though  it  could  not  be 
denied  the  President  had  the  sole  prerogative  of  say 
ing  to  what  courts  they  should  be  sent.  It  was  the 
authority  to  originate  and  lay  taxes  by  the  House 
which  he  cited  in  this  case,  as  he  had_done  in  the 
Jay  treaty  controversy  a  year  before.  The  larger 
portion  of  the  speech,  however,  dealt  with  the 
charges  of  partisanship  on  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
which  he  thought  a  disgrace  to  the  House.  Adams' 
disposition  to  appoint  only  Federalists  to  office, 
Macon  criticized  as  a  flagrant  abuse  of  power.  He 
opposed  the  appointing  of  men  to  office  except  on 
the  grounds  of  merit  and  capacity  to  serve  the  pub 
lic.1  Later  on  we  shall  see  that  he  modified,  though 
very  modestly  indeed,  this  policy.  Nicholas'  reso 
lution  was  finally  defeated  by  a  majority  of  four 
votes,  one  member  only  of  the  North  Carolina  dele 
gation  voting  with  the  majority.2 

While  the  two  parties  were  measuring  arms  in 
the  House,  and  the  measures  of  Government  were 
dragging  heavily  along  under  the  great  burden  of 
political  animosity,  a  new  issue  was  preparing. 
March  5,  1798,  Adams,  thoroughly  disappointed  at 
the  treatment  his  representatives  had  received  at  the 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1111-1113, 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  5th  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  1234. 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         109 

hands  of  Talleyrand,  and  convinced  that  his  olive 
branch  of  the  preceding  spring  was  about  to  be 
returned  unaccepted,  sent  a  message  to  Congress 
which  let  it  clearly  be  seen  that  war  was  not  only 
probable  in  the  near  future,  but  the  fixed  policy  of 
the  administration.1  Fourteen  days  later  he  warned 
the  House  that  a  bold,  united  front  should  be 
shown  to  France ;  "zeal,  vigor  and  concert  in  defence 
of  the  national  rights,  proportioned  to  the  danger 
with  which  we  are  threatened." 

The  Cabinet  decided  on  a  declaration  of  war, 
published  the  President's  message  with  the  corre 
spondence  of  the  envoys,  which  caused  intense 
excitement  throughout  the  land.  The  Federalists, 
with  Hamilton's  assistance,  began  to  press  measures 
calling  for  ten  more  ships  of  war,  an  increase  of  the 
army  to  fifty  thousand  besides  the  militia;  efficient 
fortifications,  a  new  revenue  system,  and  the  abroga 
tion  of  the  treaty  of  1778  with  France.  The  Senate 
readily  assented  to  all  the  plans  of  the  Executive. 
Outside  influence  which  should  overcome  all  oppo 
sition  was  again,  as  in  1796,  to  be  brought  to  bear 
on  the  House.  The  Republican's  following  Jeffer 
son's  advice,  recommended  an  adjournment,  in  order 
that  they  might  learn  the  will  of  the  people ;  but  the 
Senate  scouted  the  idea.  The  opponents  of  war 
with  France  held  a  caucus,  and  outlined  a  policy, 
which  Spriggs,  of  Maryland,  offered  in  the  House 
on  the  23d  of  March:  (i)  It  was  inexpedient  to 
bring  on  war  with  France;  (2)  arming  merchant 
vessels  ought  to  be  restricted;  (3)  protection  of  sea 
coasts  and  internal  defence  should  be  adequately 
provided  for — small  concessions  indeed  to  the  major 
ity.  In  order  the  more  completely  to  overwhelm 
the  Republicans  and  set  them  in  the  wrong  before 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  1201. 


110  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

the  people,  the  Federalists  in  the  House  called  on 
the  President  for  the  secret  correspondence  bearing 
on  the  treatment  of  the  American  ministers  in  Paris. 
The  Cabinet  readily  responded,  and  the  X  Y  Z 
papers  were  given  to  the  world.1  These  papers 
proved  conclusively  that  France  had  attempted  to 
bribe  the  American  government  into  supporting  that 
country  against  England.  The  administration  at 
once  became  popular  and  received  the  heartiest 
assurances  of  support  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
The  President  became  enthusiastic  as  a  boy,  and 
enjoyed  to  heart's  content  the  returning  popularity, 
which  was  not  undeserved,  and  which  he  so  much 
coveted. 

Macon's  share  in  the  lively  debates  which  fol 
lowed  was  comparatively  small.  Before  the  excite- 
inent^  was  full  grown,  and  when  the  question  of 
building  and  equipping  a  navy  was  being  discussed 
under  the  head  of  protection  to  trade,  he  made  a 
second  set  speech  on  the  subject,  in  which  he  said 
if  the  Federalists  desired  war,  let  a  declaration  of 
war  be  proposed,  and  men  would  know  how  to  vote ; 
"for  a  fighting  peace  our  measures  are  too  strong, 
and  for  war  too  weak.  Some  strange  charges  have 
been  made  against  men  who  are  desirous  of  preserv 
ing  the  peace  as  long  as  possible,  such  as  being  under 
the  French  influence.  These  charges  are  not  made 
to  have  an  influence  here,  but  out  of  doors,  where  the 
characters  of  persons  charged  are  not  known.  Gen 
tlemen  talk  about  compelling  Congress  to  act.  If 
one  were  to  be  compelled  to  act,  of  what  use  was  it 
for  his  constituents  to  send  him  here.  I  assure  that 
gentleman  (Dana,  of  Connecticutt)  that  I  will  not 
be  compelled  to  act'  (referring  to  outside  influ 
ence)."2  He  thus  resented  again  and  again  the 

1  Schouler,  I.,  398-399. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1506-1507. 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         Ill 

charges  that  members  of  his  party  were  under  the 
influence  of  French  diplomats — as  for  himself  he  had 
"never  known  a  half  dozen  Frenchmen."  When  the 
bill  for  a  provisional  army  was  before  the  House,  he 
spoke  once  more,  recurring  to  his  favorite  militia 
plan,  which  he  declared  to  be  amply  sufficient  in  any 
crisis  He  was  highly  indignant  at  the  plan  of  send 
ing  troops  into  the  Southern  States  where,  it  was 
charged,  there  were  neither  troops  nor  disposition 
to  raise  them.1 

Gallatin,  one  of  the  noblest  men  on  the  floor  of  the 
House,  and  perhaps  the  ablest,  had  now  become 
leader  of  the  Republicans.  He  had  outshone  Madi 
son  as  a  speaker,  and  as  a  logical  thinker  he  was 
equal  to  all  the  intricate  financiering  schemes  of 
Hamilton,  and  of  Wolcott,  his  agent  and  protege. 
When  Madison,  on  Jefferson's  elevation  to  the  Vice- 
President's  chair,  had  retired  to  the  Virginia  Legis 
lature,  there  to  keep  that  State  true  to  "Republican 
ism,"  as  Jefferson  insisted  on  saying,  "until  the 
people  could  be  aroused  to  a  sense  of  their  danger," 
he  had  taken  up  officially  the  leadership  of  the  oppo 
sition.  Gallatin  was  a  Genevese  who  had  emigrated 
to  this  country  before  the  Revolution,  fought  for  the 
Americans,  was  afterwards  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  where  he  was  refused  admittance 
because  he  was  not  a  Federalist;  elected  in  1795  to 
the  House,  he  soon  became  influential,  and  was  now 
the  powerful  champion  of  the  opinions  which  the 
Vice-President  could  not,  by  the  nature  of  his  office, 
advocate  in  the  Senate.  Macon  seems  to  have 
acquired  a  respect  and  admiration  for  this  Republi 
can  friend  from  Pennsylvania  which  he  never  lost, 
and  which,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  ripened  into  a 
life-long  intimacy.  But  the  opposition  was  unable 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1537. 


XATHANIEI,   MACON. 

to  stem  the  tide  which  was  setting  in  against  it,  no 
matter  how  able  and  determined  its  leaders.  The 
war  spirit  was  abroad  in  the  land,  and  those  who 
remember  the  foolish  doings  and  sayings  of  the  peo 
ple  just  prior  to  the  Spanish- American  war,  will  not 
fail  to  appreciate  its  influence :  "Towns  and  private 
societies,  grand  juries,  militia  companies,  merchant 
organizations  and  the  Cincinnati"  held  boisterous 
meetings,  made  out  long  petitions  to  Congress  and 
sent  congratulatory  addresses  to  the  President.  It 
became  dangerous  for  a  Frenchman  to  appear  on 
the  streets  in  the  large  cities,  and  any  man  suspected 
of  holding  Jacobin  opinions  was  an  object  of  aver 
sion.  An  address  of  the  young  men  of  Philadelphia, 
with  five  thousand  signatures,  was  borne  to  Adams 
at  the  head  of  a  procession  of  twelve  hundred  enthu 
siasts  for  war ;  Hail  Columbia  was  composed  at  this 
time,  and  became  as  popular  as  "After  the  Ball''  in 
our  day,  which  so  many  of  us  remember  with  regret ; 
Boston  went  beside  itself  over  the  song  of  "Adams 
and  Liberty,"  and  the  students  of  Harvard  college 
toasted  General  Suwarrow,  as  the  Russian  messen 
ger  of  freedom !  Jefferson  said  it  was  impossible 
for  a  Republican  to  appear  on  the  streets  of  Phila 
delphia  without  danger  of  personal  insult,  and  that 
in  private  social  circles  leading  members  of  Congress 
were  ostracized  because  they  voted  "against  the  gov 
ernment."  The  "rogue's  march"  was  played  under 
the  Vice-President's  window  at  night.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  these  influences  told  on  the  votes  of 
the  opposition ;  some  yielded,  others  absented  them 
selves  from  the  sessions.  By  the  middle  of  May 
all  the  main  measures  of  the  Administration  were 
carried.  Macon's  speeches  against  these  measures 
were  in  general  defensive;  at  times  he  was  rather 
personal,  though  never  offensive,  even  when  he  was 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         113 

an  object  of  constant  attack  on  the  part  of  the  New 
England  members ;  he  was  always  politic  and  appa 
rently  always  cool-headed,  while  those  around  him 
were  ofttimes  beside  themselves  with  anger  and 
excitement. 

While  the  Federalist  majority  was  carrying  every 
thing  its  own  way,  and  holding  indignation  meet 
ings  over  their  opponents,  whom  they  regarded  as 
completely  overthrown,  some  resolutions  of  another 
nature  were  presented  by  Josiah  Parker,  of  Virginia. 
They  were  from  a  company  of  grenadiers  of  Ports 
mouth.  After  a  preamble,  in  which  the  Virginia 
Declaration  of  Rights  and  one's  duty  to  posterity 
were  "duly  touched  upon,  it  said  "we  view  with 
extreme  concern  the  attempts  that  are  evidently  mak 
ing  by  men  high  in  authority  to  widen  the  breach 
between  the  United  States  and  the  French  Republic, 
by  holding  up  to  the  good  people  of  these  States  the 
late  unworthy  propositions  of  certain  unauthorized 
persons  at  Paris,  as  the  act  of  the  French  Govern 
ment,  when  in  reality  the  face  of  the  despatches  can 
not  warrant  any  such  conclusions. 

"That  we  can  not  but  view  the  man,  or  any  set  of 
men,  as  inimical  to  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  the 
sound  principle  of  self-government,  who  shall 
endeavor,  by  any  false  coloring,  to  give  the  stamp  of 
authenticity  to  that  which  in  itself  is  extremely 
doubtful  and  problematical ;  and  who  shall,  by  such 
means,  strive  to  involve  us  all  in  the  calamities  of 
war  with  the  most  powerful  republic  on  earth." 
Then  follow  resolutions  against  an  alliance  with 
England,  which  the  war  would  necessarily  bring ; 
against  lavish  expenditure  in  a  free  government ; 
in  favor  of  a  well-regulated  militia  "composed 
of  the  body  of  the  people,  which  is  the  proper,  natu 
ral  and  safe  defence  of  a  free  state" ;  another 


114  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

endorsing  all  "wise  and  patriotic  measures  of 
defence"  passed  by  the  last  Congress,  and  still 
another  declaring  what  would  seem  strange  at  any 
other  stage  in  our  history,  that  "in  case  of  actual 
invasion  we  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  good  citi 
zens  and  militiamen  to  rally  round  the  standard  of 
government,  and  to  defend  our  rights  against  all 
encroachments  whatever."  The  resolutions  close 
with  an  order  that  "copy  of  these  proceedings  be 
forwarded  to  our  Representative  in  Congress,  with 
positive  instructions  for  it  to  be  laid  by  him  before 
that  body  as  the  sense  of  their  meeting."1 

These  resolves  embrace  the  policy  of  the  Southern 
Republicans,  and  were  more  than  likely  inspired 
from  Philadelphia.  In  addition,  however,  to 
denouncing  the  party  in  power  and  its  leaders, 
toward  the  close,  we  see  the  refutation  of  the 
charges  so  commonly  made  on  the  floor  of  Congress 
that  the  Republicans  were  such  good  friends  of 
France  that  in  case  of  war  they  would  not  defend 
their  country.  The  resolutions  declare,  in  answer 
to  these  charges,  that  only  in  case  of  actual  invasion 
does  it  become  the  duty  of  all  good  citizens  to  take 
up  arms,  which  is  no  other  than  saying  that  the  sea 
warfare  of  the  Government,  or  any  expedition 
against  French  possessions  on  this  continent  would 
not  be  supported.  The  last  words  of  the  resolutions 
are  characteristic  of  the  fierce  Republicanism  of  that 
day:  that  "their  Representative  be  ordered  to  lay 
these  proceedings  before  Congress — a  theory  which 
was  so  universally  accepted  in  North  Carolina  in 
1792  and  1795  as  to  have  caused  the  recall  of  the 
State's  first  and  ablest  Senators — Johnston  and 
Hawkins — chiefly  because  they  ignored  the  right  of 
the  people  to  instruct. 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  6th  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  1707-1708. 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         115 

When  these  Portsmouth  resolves  were  read  in  the 
House,  the  Federalists  desired  to  burn  them  pub 
licly.  Sitgreaves,  the  extreme  advocate  of  war 
like  measures,  was  in  favor  of  rejecting  them  as  a 
libel  on  the  Government ;  while  Brooks,  of  New  York, 
said  "why  do  they  (the  Republican  supporters  of 
such  resolutions)  not  come  forward  and  impeach  the 
President.  I  can  scarcely  believe  that  such  illiberal 
and  scandalous  abuse  could  proceed  from  any  other 
than  vicious  dispositions."  And  Dana  but  expressed 
the  views  of  his  party  when  he  declared  that  to  refer 
these  libellous  statements  to  a  committee  and  to 
allow  them  to  become  the  basis  of  a  resolution  would 
be  charging  the  President  and  Senate  with  almost 
treasonable  behavior.  The  Republicans  admitted 
the  improper  language  of  the  resolutions,  but 
insisted  on  their  being  received  and  referred. 
Gallatin  made  a  speech  insisting  on  the  reference  of 
all  petitions  without  debate,  and  Macon  claimed 
that  this  was  the  first  instance  where  even  a  refer 
ence  of  petitions  was  opposed.  "In  the  case  of  the 
British  treaty,  addresses  had  been  received  on  both 
sides  of  the  question,  couched  in  very  strong  terms 
indeed.  It  would  be  imprudent  at  a  time  like  the 
present  when  all  believe  this  country  is  in  danger,  to 
reject  addresses  from  persons  well  attached  to  the 
Government,  merely  on  the  ground  of  etiquette. 
And  furthermore,  our  Constitution  guarantees  the 
people  the  right  of  petition,  without  defining  the 
manner  in  which  they  shall  do  it,  and  this  right  we 
can  not  abridge.  Again,  the  refusal  to  give  fair 
consideration  to  the  Portsmouth  petitioners  would 
be  tantamount  to  acknowledging  that  the  House 
was  afraid  of  investigation" — a  rather  plain  hit  at 
its  opponents.  The  resolutions  were  finally  received 
and  referred  to  a  committee  which  consigned  them 
to  oblivion  successfully  enough. 


116  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Toward  the  end  of  May,  as  the  war  spirit  con 
tinued  to  rise,  the  Federalists  became  more  and  more 
aggressive :  they  were  anxious  to  lay  hands  on  those 
liberal,  perhaps  extreme,  advocates  of  democratic 
government,  who  were  of  foreign  descent;  and 
they  began  by  directing  legislation  toward  a  series 
of  naturalization  laws,  which  should  require  a 
foreigner  to  live  in  the  country  five  years  before 
he  might  ask  for  papers  looking  toward  citizen 
ship,  and  fourteen  years  before  he  should  finally 
acquire  the  rights  of  a  citizen;  that  all  foreigners 
not  already  citizens  are  "liable  to  be  arrested  as  sus 
pected  persons."  -Gallatin  began  his  customary  roll 
of  shrewd  amendment  and  obstruction,  but  he  was 
voted  down  regularly  by  majorities  of  one  or  two 
votes.  Macon  assisted  the  Pennsylvanian,  and 
offered  a  plea  for  ''the  great  body  of  persons  who 
live  remote  from  centres  of  information,  and  who, 
entirely  ignorant  of  all  this  excitement  against  them, 
are  innocently  pursuing  their  callings,  expecting  to 
become  citizens  at  the  expiration  of  the  old  term  of 
five  years.  The  new  measure  would  press  hardly 
on  such  people,  and  without  their  having  been  in 
any  way  deserving  of  ill  treatment."  But  no 
speeches  could  check  the  onward  course  of  the  sup 
porters  of  the  Administration.  Gallatin  himself 
had  been  refused  his  seat  in  a  Federalist  Senate; 
why  not  so  construct  a  bill  now  as  to  drive  him  out 
of  the  House,  which  had  also  fallen  into  their  hands  ? 
Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  had  found  the  able 
Genevan  democrat  a  most  objectionable  opponent, 
and  in  the  honesty  of  his  American  soul  he  declared 
"it  is  high  time  for  us  to  recover  from  the  mistake 
with  which  we  set  out  under  the  Constitution  of 
admitting  foreigners  to  citizenship ;  for  nothing  but 
birth  should  entitle  a  man  to  citizenship,  and  we 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         117 

ought  so  to  declare  it."  And  Otis,  a  kinsman  of  the 
greater  Otis  of  1769,  offered  a  resolution  which  was 
a  source  of  only  partial  satisfaction  to  the  South 
Carolinian,  requiring  that  no  alien-born  should 
hereafter  hold  office  under  the  United  States.  The 
zeal  of  Gallatin's  enemies  happily  was  cooled  by  a 
reminder  that  the  Constitution  itself  spoke  out  on  the 
subject,  and  so  they  had  to  accustom  themselves  to 
looking  without  becoming  nauseated  upon  quiet, 
genteel-looking  Mr.  Gallatin,  occupying  his  post  of 
leadership  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  House.1 

As  the  bill  finally  became  a  law  by  a  vote  of 
forty-six  to  forty-four,  on  May  23,  it  gave  the  Pres 
ident  absolute  powers  over  the  large  class  of  people 
in  the  country  designated  by  Congress  ( i )  as  Alien 
friends,  and  (2)  as  Alien  enemies.  Alien  friends  he 
could  banish  without  assigning  cause,  and  failing  to 
observe  the  Presidential  order  to  leave  the  country, 
the  Executive  could  consign  them  to  jail  for  three 
years,  while  the  right  of  citizenship  was  thereby  for 
feited  forever.  And  this,  the  Federalist  vengeance 
still  insisted,  might  be  followed  by  forcible  deporta 
tion.  If  a  Frenchman  or  a  Dutchman  who  had 
been  ordered  away  returned  without  permission,  he 
was  subject  to  imprisonment  and  hard  labor  for  life. 
So  much  for  alien  friends.  Alien  enemies  were  to 
be  apprehended  whenever  and  wherever  the  Presi 
dent  chose,  and  to  be  treated  as  he  thought  best. 
Let  us  hope  it  was  not  much  worse  than  the  treat 
ment  accorded  to  alien  friends.  Those  who  gave 
shelter  or  comfort  to  alien  enemies,  according  to 
medieval  precedent,  might  likewise  be  seized  and 
imprisoned.  Well  might  Gallatin  and  his  friends 
begin  to  look  to  their  own  cases,  lest  by  associating 
with  Doctor  Cooper  or  the  eminent  French  scientist, 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  5th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1776  on. 


118  NATHANIEL,   MACON. 

Volney,  both  friends  of  theirs,  they  themselves  wake 
up  some  morning  in  a  Philadelphia  jail. 

Two  days  after  the  alien  law  was  enacted,  a  new 
bill  for  the  "more  effectual  protection  of  commerce'' 
came  up — the  same  that  had  given  occasion  to  Sew- 
all's  threat  to  secede  from  the  Union  at  the  extra 
session  a  year  before.  Macon  claimed  that  these 
"Resolutions  for  the  further  Protection  of  Trade" 
brought  in  by  Sitgreaves  were  equivalent  to  a  decla 
ration  of  war  against  France,  and  he  moved  an 
amendment  declaring  war  on  all  nations  whose  treat 
ment  of  our  trading  vessels  was  the  same  as  that  com 
plained  of  from  France.  Provocation  sufficient  for 
a  formal  declaration  of  war  had  been  repeatedly 
given  by  "more  than  one  nation  during  the  past  two 
years.  If  it  must  come,  let  us  be  just  to  all  alike." 
He  added  that  peace  even  under  the  insolent  treat 
ment  from  foreign  ships  of  war  was  preferable  to 
war :  "our  trade  and  our  revenue  are  continually 
increasing."  Which  was  true.  The  American  car 
rying  trade,  thanks  to  the  bold  New  England  ship 
builders  and  sailors,  was  then  second  only  to  that 
of  England.  New  England  towns  were  becoming 
rich  in  times  of  war,  like  those  of  Holland  in  1580- 
1600,  when  all  the  greater  states  of  Europe  were  at 
war;  their  traders  were  to  be  seen  on  every  shore 
driving  hard  bargains  with  the  natives.  Macon 
insisted  on  peace  for  the  benefit  then  of  the  South, 
which  did  not  desire  war,  and  which  found  its  best 
market  for  its  enormous  tobacco  crop  in  France. 
He  asked  at  that  stage  of  affairs  a  postponement  of 
action  until  a  further  report  from  the  Paris  commis 
sioners  could  be  received.  Harper  replied  by  accu 
sing  Macon  of  inconsistency,  and  others  censured 
him  severely  for  desiring  so  to  amend  the  resolu 
tion  of  Mr.  Sitgreaves  as  to  make  them  a  declaration 


MACON    AND    FEDERALIST    SUPREMACY.         119 

of  war  against  both  France  and  England  Macon 
answered  these  criticisms  when  the  House  took  up 
the  report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  saying 
that  "instead  of  blaming  him,  the  gentleman  ought 
to  be  obliged  to  him  for  giving  them  opportunity  of 
making  studied  speeches,  which  they  otherwise  could 
not  have  done,"  a  remark,  to  be  sure,  too  trivial  for 
the  occasion.  To  the  statement  of '  Harper  that 
Macon's  amendment  gave  the  lie  to  his  former  senti 
ments,  he  returned  a  rather  sharp  but  courteous 
rebuke :  "It  is  the  gentleman's  custom  to  speak  thus." 
The  Speaker  called  him  to  order  for  the  first  time 
since  he  had  been  a  member  of  Congress,  when  he 
went  so  far  as  to  state  that  in  the  Revolutionary  war 
no  man  east  of  the  Delaware  had  ever  been  seen 
fighting  in  the  Southern  States,  and  that  now  the 
South  was  willing  to  be  left  alone.  He  declared 
that  the  country  was  divided  in  political  sentiment 
geographically,  and  would  always  remain  so;  that 
there  were  sections  which  always  opposed  each 
other,  but  that  this,  like  every  State  and  county  in 
the  Union,  did  not  signify  a  lack  of  patriotism,  and 
that  statements  to  that  effect  made  in  the  House 
were  directed  only  to  the  galleries.  After  rehears 
ing  the  ills  suffered  under  the  British  policy  of 
impressment,  he  renewed  his  demand  that  war 
should  be  made  on  all  foreign  countries  alike,  if  at 
all ;  and  he  knew  only  too  well  if  there  were  any 
danger  of  England's  being  threatened  by  the  bill  as 
amended,  it  would  never  pass.  Bayard,  of  New 
Jersey,  followed  with  the  final  speech  on  the  Macon 
amendment,  in  which  the  latter  was  again  the^object 
of  considerable  animus.  Bayard  entered  into  a 
lengthy  justification  of  Great  Britain's  policy  toward 
America  since  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Paris,  and 
eulogized  the  country  which,  he  said,  out  of  pure 


120  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

love  for  us !  convoyed  our  trading  vessels  from 
their  ports  all  the  way  across  the  Atlantic  to  keep 
them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  French. 
Macon's  motion  was  lost,  seventy  to  twenty,  the 
twenty  supporters  being  those  extreme  anti-English 
Republicans  like  himself  and  Matthew  Locke,  of 
North  Carolina,  old  General  Sumpter,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  the  good  Dutchman,  Van  Cortlandt, 
of  New  York.1  This  resolution  of  Macon's  and  its 
rejection  show  him  even  at  that  time  one  of  those 
independents  who  so  often  disconcert  party  plans 
and  measures. 

A  letter  of  his,2  dated  May  24,  shows  his  private 
opinion  of  the  bill  he  had  just  been  opposing:  "An 
act  passed  both  Houses  of  the  legislature  yesterday, 
which,  in  my  opinion,  amounts  to  a  declaration  of 
war  against  the  French  Republic,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  but  the  President  will  approve  it  early  tomor 
row,  so  that  it  will  be  a  law  as  soon  as  possible." 
On  May  30  he  laid  before  the  House  a  resolution 
for  adjournment  on  June  14 — his  plan  being,  of 
course,  to  escape  Federalist  legislation  and  at  the 
same  time  get  back  to  his  plantation.  In  the  letter 
above  referred  to,  he  said :  "You  ask  when  I  expect 
to  be  at  home ;  it  is  not  possible  to  form  at  this  day 
any  correct  opinion  as  to  the  time,  though  I  hope  to 
be  there  in  all  the  next  month" — hopes  consistent 
enough  with  his  motion,  but  not  with  the  wishes  of 
the  majority  of  the  House.  At  the  time  of  this 
writing  the  Direct  Taxation  plan,  often  suggested 
before  this  time  by  the  leaders  of  the  opposition 
themselves,  was  before  the  House.  Macon  neither 
favored  nor  opposed  it  in  this  letter  to  his  friend : 
"No  new  tax  law  has  yet  passed,  though  the 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  sthCong.,  2d  Ssss.,  1815-1827. 

2  Macon  to  Roger  Bigelow  of  Warren  county,  N.  C.,  May  24,  1798, 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY. 

large  appropriations  that  have  been  made  will  ren 
der  one  necessary,  it  is  expected,  and  a  bill  is  before 
the  House  of  R.  laying  a  direct  tax  on  land,  houses 
and  slaves,  to  be  apportioned  among  the  States 
according  to  the  rule  prescribed  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States." 

When  this  bill  came  up,  Macon  proposed  to  change 
it  so  that  all  improvements  aside  from  dwelling- 
houses — the  specific  object  of  taxation  after  land 
contemplated  in  the  bill — should  be  taxed.  This 
change  he  based  on  the  claims  of  common  justice 
that  every  species  of  property  should  bear  its  propor 
tion  of  the  burdens  of  government.  Gallatin  took 
the  same  view,  and  the  motion  to  strike  out  the 
clause  to  which  Macon  objected  passed.  Instead  of 
the  adjournment  which  Macon  pressed  to  a  vote  and 
lost,  thirty-four  to  thirty-two,  Congress  remained 
in  session  through  the  month  of  June  and  far  into 
July.  On  the  5th  of  July,  the  Senate  bill  for  the 
''Punishment  of  Crime"  was  brought  in  by  the  Fed 
eralists.  It  provided  that  "if  any  person  shall  un 
lawfully  combine  or  conspire  together  with  intent  to 
oppose  any  measure  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  to  impede  the  operation  of  any  law,  or  to 
intimidate  or  prevent  any  person  holding  office 
under  the  Government  from  exercising  his  trust1; 
if  any  person  shall,  by  writing,  printing  or  speaking, 
threaten  such  officer,  *  *  *  he  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor,  and  punished  by  a 
fine,  on  conviction,  not  exceeding  five  thousand  dol 
lars,  and  by  imprisonment  not  less  than  six  months 
nor  exceeding  five  years.  If  any  person  shall,  by 
any  libellous  or  scandalous  writing,  printing,  pub 
lishing  or  speaking,  traduce  or  defame  the  legisla- 

i  One  is  reminded  here  of  the  experience  of  the  English  in  the 
attempt  to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act. 


122  NATHANIIX  MACON. 

ture  of  the  United  States,  *  *  *  with  intent  to 
create  a  belief  in  the  citizens  thereof  that  the  said 
legislature,  in  enacting  any  law,  was  induced  thereto 
by  motives  hostile  to  the  Constitution  or  liberties 
and  happiness  of  the  people  thereof ;  or  shall  in  any 
manner  aforesaid  traduce  or  defame  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  or  any  Court,  or  Judge  thereof, 
the  person  so  offending,  being  convicted, 
shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  two  thou 
sand  dollars  and  by  imprisonment  not  exceeding 
two  years." 

The  best  comment  from  both  points  of  view  on 
the  introduction  of  this  bill  into  the  House  appears 
in  the  first  motions  made:  Otis,  Federalist,  that  it 
be  read  a  second  time;  Harrison,  Republican,  that 
the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  be  read.  When 
a  determined  opposition  was  at  once  manifested,  the 
Federalists  betrayed  a  chief  cause  of  this  legislation : 
their  animosity  toward  the  leading  Republican  jour 
nals.  Allen,  of  Connecticutt,  said :  "Let  gentlemen 
look  at  certain  papers  printed  in  this  city  and  else 
where,  and  ask  themselves  whether  an  unwarrant 
able  and  dangerous  combination  does  not  exist  to 
overturn  and  ruin  the  Government  by  publishing 
the  most  shameless  falsehoods  against  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  of  all  denominations,  that 
they  are  hostile  to  free  government  and  genuine 
liberty,  and  of  course  to  the  welfare  of  the  country ; 
that  they  ought,  therefore,  to  be  displaced,  and  that 
the  people  ought  to  raise  an  insurrection  against  the 
Government."  He  then  read  paragraphs  from  the 
Aurora,  organ  of  the  Republicans;  charged  the 
Republicans  in  and  out  of  the  House  with  being  in 
a  conspiracy  with  Gerry,  the  supposed  Republican 
member  of  the  French  commission,  their  agent  in 
Paris,  to  treat  with  France  in  spite  of  the  Govern- 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  123 

ment ;  and  coming  back  to  the  newspapers  again,  he 
quotes  the  Aurora  as  saying:  "The  period  is  now  at 
hand  when  it  will  be  a  question  difficult  to  deter 
mine  whether  there  is  more  safety  and  liberty  to 
be  enjoyed  at  Constantinople  or  Philadelphia."  Liv 
ingston  was  charged  with  making  war  on  the  Gov 
ernment  through  the  same  paper,  and  "this  infamous 
printer  follows  him  with  the  tocsin  of  insurrection. 
Can  gentlemen  hear  these  things  and  lie  quietly  on 
their  pillows?  Are  these  approaches  to  revolution 
and  Jacobinic  domination  to  be  observed  with  the 
eye  of  meek  submission?  No,  sir,  they  are  indeed 
terrible;  they  are  calculated  to  freeze  the  blood  in 
our  veins.  Such  liberty  of  the  press  and  of  opinion 
is  calculated  to  destroy  all  confidence  between  man 
and  man ;  it  cuts  asunder  every  ligament  that  unites 
man  to  his  fellows,  man  to  his  neighbor,  man  to 
society,  man  to  government.  God  deliver  us  from 
such  liberty  I"1  Harper,  in  a  moderate  manner, 
went  over  the  same  ground,  asserting  that  libellous 
speeches  had  been  made  in  the  House,  and  libellous 
letters  were  being  written  from  it  to  many  parts  of 
the  country.  He  favored  the  measure,  and  with 
him  was  the  cooler-headed  portion  of  the  Federal 
ist  party. 

Macon  spoke  somewhat  at  length  in  opposition  to 
the  Senate's  Sedition  bill:  It  was  in  direct  oppo 
sition  to  the  Constitution  and  if  Congress  could 
pass  a  law  to  abridge  the  liberty  of  the  press,  it 
could  pass  a  law  establishing  a  state  religion ;  if  the 
Constitution  be  violated  in  one  respect,  it  may  as 
well  be  violated  in  others.  "Laws  of  restraint,  like 
this,  always  operate  in  a  contrary  direction  from 
that  which  they  are  intended  to  take.  The  people 
suspect  something  is  not  right  when  free  discus- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  2092-2101. 


124:  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

sion  is  feared  by  government,  They  know  that 
truth  is.  not  afraid  of  investigation."  Calling  to 
mind  the  methods  of  1776  he  said,  "if  people  are  so 
dissatisfied  as  men  claim,  this  law  will  force  them 
to  combine;  they  will  establish  corresponding  socie 
ties  throughout  the  Union,  and  communications  will 
be  made  in  secret  instead  of  publicly.  I  believe 
the  people  may  be  as  safely  trusted  with  free  dis 
cussion  as  they  whom  they  have  chosen  to  do  their 
business."  In  reply  to  Otis's  statement  that  the  pro 
posed  bill  was  not  different  from  the  common  law  of 
the  land,  he  went  to  the  heart  of  the  thing,  for  Otis 
had  said  the  States  had  prosecuted  the  people  for 
libel  in  just  such  cases:  "let  the  States  continue  to 
punish,  when  necessary,  licentiousness  of  the  press." 
But  that  was  a  power  which  the  National  Govern 
ment  desired  to  usurp  in  order  to  punish  those  whom 
the  States  ignored  and  in  many  cases  encouraged. 
Allen  of  New  York  had  said  that  Republican  papers 
claimed  the  Federalists  were  seeking  to  destroy  the 
liberty  of  the  press.  "The  passage  of  this  bill," 
said  Macon,  "will  cause  a  hundred  such  charges  to 
be  made  where  there  is  now  one."  As  to  Bache's 
paper,  the  Aurora,  he  asserted,  and  rightly,  that 
Cobbotfs,  the  Federalist  organ,  was  equally  licen 
tious,  and  that  he,  Macon,  depended  on  the  "lies  in 
the  one  paper  to  be  counteracted  by  the  lies  in  another 
of  the  opposing  party."  This  very  practical  speech 
was  concluded  by  a  warning  to  his  opponents  not  to 
seek  their  precedents  beyond  the  water,  referring, 
of  course,  to  Pitt's  recent  measures  against  the  Lib- 
eralist  press  in  England;  that  "conditions  in  Amer 
ica  are  so  different  as  to  make  all  imitations  fail 
ures  ;  the  people  in  our  country  understand  their 
State  and  Federal  governments,  are  jealous  of  any 
encroachments  of  the  one  upon  the  other;  they  are 


MACON  AfW)  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  125 

extremely  jealous  of  their  liberty  as  freemen  ought 
to  be."1 

After  the  original  bill  had  been  modified  by  allow 
ing  the  truth  as  evidence  in  the  courts  in  favor  of  the 
defendant,  and  the  operation  of  the  proposed  meas 
ure  limited  to  two  years,  which  improvements  passed 
in  the  one  instance  by  the  vote  of  the  Speaker  and 
in  the  other  by  a  very  small  majority,  the  report  of 
the  Committee  of  the  Whole  came  before  the  House 
for  a  final  decision  and  Macon  again  spoke  against  it : 
(i)  by  citing  the  first  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  asking,  "How  can  so  plain  language  be 
misunderstood  or  interpreted  into  consistency  with 
the  bill  before  us;  (2)  this  very  subject  had  come 
up  in  the  conventions  which  adopted  the  Constitu 
tion  and  every  advocate  of  the  General  Government 
had  denied  that,  even  without  the  amendments,  pros 
ecutions  for  libel  could  be  made  under  its  authority, 
or  that  the  full  and  complete  freedom  of  the  press 
could  be  abridged,  except  through  State  interfer 
ence."  Quoting  from  the  debates  in  the  North  Car 
olina  Convention,  and  from  Judge  Iredell's  argu 
ment,  he  made  a  strong  point  against  his  oppo 
nents.  Iredell  was  then  a  violent  Federalist  and  a 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  he  had  said  at  Hills- 
boro,  in  the  North  Carolina  Convention:  "Where 
is  the  power  given  them  to  do  this?  They  (Con 
gress)  have  power  to  define  and  punish  piracies  and 
felonies  committed  on  the  high  seas  and  offences 
against  the  law  of  nations ;  but  they  have  no  power 
to  define  any  other  crime  whatever  *  *  *.  They 
can  claim  no  other  but  such  as  are  so  enumerated." 
(3)  Then  he  cited  the  opinions  of  members  of  Con 
gress  when  the  amendments  were  passed  and  they 
were  unanimously  against  any  such  measures  as 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  2105-2106. 


126  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

were  then  before  the  House ;  and,  "how  is  it  come 
to  pass,  notwithstanding  all  the  positive  opinions 
which  I  have  quoted  to  the  contrary,  that  Congress 
should  now  conceive  that  they  have  power  to  pass 
laws  on  this  subject?"  (4)  As  to  the  policy  of  such 
action,  he  believed  it  bad,  that  the  States  had  here 
tofore  exercised  jurisdiction  in  this  matter  and  that 
any  lack  of  confidence  expressed  in  the  State  gov 
ernments  was  dangerous.  "This  Government  de 
pends  upon  the  State  Legislatures  for  existence. 
They  have  only  to  refuse  to  elect  Senators  to  Con- 
gress  and  all  is  gone."  It  was  a  vain  hope  he  ex 
pressed  as  he  took  his  seat:  "but  if  there  be  a 
majority  determined  to  pass  it,  I  can  only  hope  that 
the  judges  (the  Supreme  Court)  will  exercise 
the  power  placed  in  them  of  determining  the  law 
an  unconstitutional  law,  if,  upon  scrutiny,  they 
find  it  to  be  so.1 

This  speech  of  Macon's  contains  his  political 
creed,  so  far  as  the  relation  of  the  States  to  the 
National  Constitution  and  vice  versa  is  concerned. 
It  is  all  a  very  simple  matter ;  the  nation  is  an  ema 
nation  ,of  the  State  governments  and  entirely  de 
pendent  on  them.  His  opinion,  both  as  to  the  con 
stitutionality  and  the  expediency  of  the  Sedition 
laws  as  expressed  above,  have  been  shown  to  be 
entirely  correct;  within  four  years  but  few  of  the 
Federalists  would  have  disputed  this  with  him. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  discuss  a  policy  which 
has  been  admitted  by  all  students  of  our  history  to 
have  been  an  egregious  blunder  on  the  part  of  the 
party  which  took  it  up.  The  object  of  the  Federal 
ists  was  to  muzzle  public  opinion,  and  since  the  State 
governments  were  not  to  be  counted  on  to  cooperate, 
they  usurped  powers  which  had  not  been  granted. 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  zd  Sess.,  2151-2152. 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  127 

When  Macon  suggested  that  the  States  alone 
had  the  punishment  of  libel  and  of  the  so-called 
sedition  in  their  control,  he  touched  upon  the  "heart 
of  the  matter" ;  the  persons  aimed  at  in  the  law  lived 
in  States  which  were  not  likely  to  interfere  with  an 
occasional  or  even  daily  castigation  of  the  Feder 
alists  in  the  public  prints.  From  Pennsylvania 
south,  including  South  Carolina  even,  there  was 
neither  a  court  nor  a  grand  jury  which  could  be 
depended  on  to  punish  these  offenders  against  East 
ern  ideas  of  political  propriety.  The  National  Gov 
ernment,  on  the  contrary,  was  then  in  the  hands 
of  the  party  which  had  erected  it,  and  this  party 
was  looking  for  an  opportunity  to  teach  the  people 
the  wholesome  lesson  of  respectful  authority  and 
dutiful  silence  in  matters  which  little  concerned 
them:  the  management  of  a  nation,  its  finance,  its 
laws,  its  wars.  "The  people,"  to  the  leading  Fed 
eralists,  were  "a  great  beast,"  whose  business  it  was 
to  pay  taxes,  fight  in  the  wars,  be  obedient  to  the 
laws  and  forever  hold  their  peace;  they  existed  for 
the  benefit  of  "friends  of  government,"  for  the 
"intelligent  and  educated  classes."  And  as  to  the 
bounds  set  by  the  Constitution,  especially  those 
obnoxious  amendments,  which  were  the  product  of 
those  very  "people"  who  now  disputed  with  the 
Federalists  the  path  to  national  glory,  they  were 
not  overscrupulous.  All  that  Macon  said  was  to 
them  but  an  echo  of  that  violent  opposition  which 
burst  forth  in  1788  in  the  Southern  States  against 
the  Constitution  in  its  original  form ;  his  arguments 
convinced  some  perhaps  of  the  unconstitutionality 
of  their  bill,  judged  by  the  amendments;  but  the 
amendments  themselves  were  unconstitutional.1 
What  gave  the  dominant  party  the  assurance  to 

*  Compare  Schouler,  I.,  409-410. 


128  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

go  to  such  extremes  as  the  acts  of  this  session  of 
Congress  committed  them  was  the  constantly  rising 
of  the  tide  of  excitement  against  France,  rather 
in  favor  of  a  Jingoistic  nationalism,  with  commer 
cialism  in  the  saddle.  Adams  could  not  under 
stand  popular  sentiment,  nor  keep  his  head  in  the 
midst  of  popular  applause.  One  single  remon 
strance  against  the  administration  came  from  the 
people  during  that  long  session,  while  thousands  of 
addresses  poured  into  the  President's  office  endors 
ing  his  spirited  action.  This  excitement  increased 
as  the  summer  of  1798  came  on:  May  8th  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  President  as  day  of  National  fasting 
and  prayer,  though  he  himself  did  not  believe  partic 
ularly  in  prayer,  and  the  people  gathered  in  the 
churches,  as  they  had  done  in  1776,  to  listen  to  politi 
cal  harangues  from  the  pulpit.  On  July  4th  the 
American  spirit  reached  its  climax,  "the  revolu 
tionary  watch-fires  were  kindled  at  the  old  altar; 
the  native-born  of  the  North  sported  the  black  cock 
ade,  and  Tallyrand,  the  apostate  Bishop  of  Autun, 
was  burned  in  effigy."1  And  all  this  came  just  at 
the  time  when  then  Naturalization,  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws  were  passing.  How  could  it  be  other 
than  overwhelming  public  approval?  It  wras  on 
the  5th  of  July  that  Allen  made  his  long  speech  of 
indictment  against  the  public  press,  that  Harper 
demanded  the  passage  of  the  last  great  Federalist 
measure  of  repression  and  Otis  grew  hot  with  anger 
as  he  contemplated  the  villainy  of  these  "Jacobin 
leaders"  in  the  House  of  Representatives  itself. 
What  availed  the  speeches  and  protests  of  Living 
ston,  notwithstanding  "his  respectable  connections," 
of  Gallatin  and  Macon !  The  bill  passed  on  July 
loth  and  the  majority  adjourned  in  songs  of  jubilee, 

i  Schou'.er,  I.,  400. 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  129 

anticipating  sweeping  elections  in  their  favor ;  while 
the  Republicans  resting  on  their  oars,  "repaired  to 
their  respective  Legislatures,"  as  Jefferson  said, 
leaving  a  few  of  the  faithful  on  the  watch  in  Phila 
delphia,  while  they,  the  retiring  members,  were  to 
bring  up  the  sober  opinions  of  the  people  when  they 
came  again  to  Congress. 

Macon  had  enough  to  contemplate  as  he  returned 
on  horseback  to  his  plantation  on  the  Roanoke  about 
the  middle  of  July.  While  war  was  imminent,  and 
the  President,  in  obedience  J:o  the  acts  of  Congress, 
was  organizing  a  large  army  with  Washington  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  North  Carolina  supported 
vigorously  the  measures  of  the  administration. 
Davie,  a  leading  Federalist,  of  Halifax,  was  ap 
pointed  a  Brigadier  General  and  was  given  the 
power  to  name  all  the  new  army  officers  from  his 
State,  provided  he  selected  "only  good  Federalists," 
as  Washington  instructed  him.1  The  elections  came 
on  soon  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress  and  the 
Federalists  gained  control  of  the  Legislature  by  a 
small  majority.  Davie  was  sent  to  the  House  again 
after  years  of  absence,  and  Samuel  Johnston  to  the 
Senate.  John  Macon  was  defeated  in  Warren  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life  and  Willie  Jones,  too,  had 
failed  to  represent  and  satisfy  public  opinion  in  Hali 
fax;  Timothy  Bloodworth,  the  wizzard  of  Wil 
mington  politics,  was  scarce  heard  of,  so  completely 
had  the  storm  of  enthusiasm  turned  in  favor  of  his 
opponents.  The  defeat  of  the  Republicans  was 
general,  but  the  dissatisfaction  with  their  actions 
was  not  great  enough,  however,  to  return  to  the 
United  States  Senate  Alexander  Martin,  because  of 
having  voted  in  favor  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
laws.  Martin  had  been  elected  to  the  Senate  as  a 

i  Washington  to  Davie,  Washington's  Works,  ( Sparks  ),  XI.,  336. 

9 


130  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

successor  to  Samuel  Johnston  in  1792  because  of 
his  Republican  principles.  When  everything  seemed 
to  be  going  to  suit  the  wishes  of  the  Federalists  he 
had  changed  his  policy  and  had  voted  for  the  Alien 
and  Sedition  laws.  Martin  was  defeated  in  1798  in 
the  Legislature  by  Jesse  Franklin,  a  second  Macon  in 
politics.  Bloodworth,  his  colleague  in  the  Senate, 
remained  firm  in  his  Republican  policy  and  received 
the  endorsement  of  the  Legislature.  Notwithstand 
ing  the  decidedly  anti-Republican  turn  of  the  North 
Carolina  elections,  its  delegation  in  Congress  was 
expressly  instructed  by  the  Legislature  to  labor 
for  the  repeal  of  the  principal  Federalist  measures 
of  the  past  session — the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws. 
The  North  Carolina  Federalists  drew  a  distinction 
between  Adams'  foreign  and  domestic  policies ;  the 
former  they  heartily  approved,  while  the  latter  was 
as  heartily  opposed.1  These  actions  show  the  mild 
character  of  the  policy  of  the  conservatives  and  the 
ultra-conservatives  in  North  Carolina.  To  reward 
the  Federalists,  Adams  nominated  Governor  Davie 
as  envoy  to  France  in  September,  1799,  and  .Benja 
min  Smith,  a  Federalist  and  the  Speaker  of  the  Sen 
ate,  succeeded  him.  But  Smith  was  soon  followed  in 
office  by  Benjamin  Williams,  of  Moore,  an  unassum 
ing  Democrat,  and  from  this  time  the  Senate  steadily 
turned  again  to  a  hearty  support  of  the  Jeffersonian 
leaders.  Nothing  did  more  to  weaken  the  party  in 
that  State  than  the  appointment  of  Davie. 

While  the  elections  all  over  the  country  were 
going  against  the  Republicans  and  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  Federalists  were  still  jubilant  over  their 
victory,  the  two  leaders  of  these  opposing  parties 
in  the  nation  were  laying  significant  plans  for  the 
future : 

i  House  Journals  N.  C.  Assembly,  1798,  76-77. 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  131 

1 I )  Jefferson  gave  letters  of  introduction  to  good 
Doctor  Logan,  who  was  going  abroad  on  a  personal 
mission,  for  the  reestablishment  of  friendly  relations 
between  France  and  the  United  States.     These  let 
ters  gave  Logan  a  semi-official  character  in  Paris, 
and  most  of  the  influential  leaders  there  regarded 
him  as  a  representative  of  the  Republican  influence 
in   Philadelphia.     Gerry's   departure   from  Paris  a 
few   days  before  Logan's  arrival  was   such  as  to 
leave  the  way  well  paved  for  the  beginning  of  better 
diplomatic   relations.      Merlin   and   Talleyrand   re 
ceived   the   benevolent    Philadelphia    Quaker   with 
abundant  affection;  he  was  feted  as  an  envoy  from 
the  "States  favorable  to  the  French  interests,"  i.  e.} 
from  the  South.     In  a  short  time  he  returned  to 
America  with  assurances  of  peace  and  knocked  at 
the  door  of  the  Department  of  State,  naively  thinking 
his  message  would  be  joyfully  received;  but  stern 
Mr.  Pickering  kept  it  barred  against  him.     Logan 
then  payed  a  visit  to  Washington,  who  was  then 
in  the  city  on  a  mission  of  war,  only  to  meet  a  more 
"icy  reception."     On  the  President  his  story  made 
a   more    favorable    impression.     Adams    had    been 
spending  the  summer  at  Quincy  and  his  old  friend 
Gerry  had  been  talking  to  him  about  French  affairs, 
and  with  the  result  that  the  President  had  returned 
to   Philadelphia  just  before  the  meeting  of   Con 
gress    firmly   resolved   to    send    another   envoy   to 
France.     This  olive  branch  the  Quaker  had  brought 
came  to  him  in  good  time ;  it  was  the  result  of  Jef 
ferson's  influence  brought  to  bear  in  a  most  extra 
ordinary  way,  viewed  in  the  light  of  present  diplo 
matic  practice.1 

(2)  Hamilton's  plan  was  of  a  different  nature: 
the  South  American  colonies  of  Spain  were  in  a 

i  Washington's  Works,  XI.,  384-385;  Schouler,  I.,  426-429. 


132  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

mood  for  revolt,  which  has  been  a  constant  quantity 
with  them  ever  since;  France  and  Spain  had  mutu 
ally  guaranteed  each  other's  possessions  in  that 
quarter  of  the  globe,  and  the  two  powers  were, 
moreover,  otherwise  too  amicable  to  please  the  Eng 
lish  cabinet.  What  better  stroke  could  be  made 
than  to  strike  Spain  at  her  most  vulnerable  point. 
Hence  when  John  Miranda,  an  able  South  Ameri 
can  Revolutionist,  asked  assistance  about  this  time 
in  London,  a  grand  scheme  of  conquest  began  to 
take  shape.  Rufus  King,  the  American  ambassa 
dor  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  was  at  once  ap 
proached,  and  he  in  turn  approached  Hamilton. 
Hamilton,  Pickering's  political  mentor,  opened 
secret  correspondence  with  the  Department  of  State 
in  Philadelphia.  Adams  was  not  to  know  anything 
of  the  plan,  which  was  to  lend  assistance  to  Miranda, 
until  it  was  fully  developed  and  prevented  in  such  a 
way  that  he  could  be  coerced  into  compliance.  This 
was  all  begun  at  the  same  time  the  warlike  meas 
ures  toward  France  were  first  being  pressed  in  Con 
gress.  The  plan  was  this :  war  was  to  be  declared 
against  France,  Pickering  was  to  pick  a  quarrel 
with  Spain,  AVashington  was  to  be  given  nominal 
command  of  our  army  while  Hamilton  was  to  be 
its  actual  head.  Our  navy,  which  was  having  such 
a  struggle  to  get  itself  born  into  the  world,  should 
guard  our  coasts,  while  England,  coming  to  the 
assistance  of  America,  was  to  send  a  great  fleet 
against  South  America  with  which  our  army  should 
cooperate.  In  case  the  expedition  prove  successful 
the  United  States  were  to  receive  the  Floridas  and 
all  of  Spanish  Louisiana  east  of  the  Mississippi; 
England  was  to  have  undisputed  possession  of  the 
West  Indies  and  exclusive  rights  across  the  isth 
mus  of  Panama  and  both  Anglo-Saxon  nations 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  133 

were  to  be  perpetual  allies.  Pitt,  King,  Hamilton, 
Pickering  and  perhaps  Harper  of  South  Carolina 
were  the  promoters  of  the  plan,  and  all  the  leading 
Federalists  were  cooperating  with  Hamilton  with 
out  knowing  just  what  was  to  be  undertaken.  The 
organization  of  the  army  during  the  summer,  and 
the  inflamable  disposition  of  France  gave  promise 
that  the  opportunity  for  active  operations  would  soon 
come.  Miranda  wrote  Hamilton  late  in  October : 
"All  is  ready  for  your  President  to  give  the  word."1 

When  Congress  assembled  in  December,  and 
when  it  was  ready  to  hear  the  President's  address, 
Washington,  Hamilton  and  Pinckney,  the  ranking 
generals  in  the  new  army,  appeared  and  took  their 
seats  on  the  right  of  the  Speaker's  chair;  to  the 
left  sat  the  British  and  Portuguese  ministers  with 
their  secretaries — an  array  of  dignity  and  authority 
imposing  enough  to  make  obstinate  Republicans 
think  more  than  once  before  opposing  the  measures 
of  administration.2  The  schemes  of  the  two  astute 
political  leaders  above  described  were  bearing  heav 
ily  from  both  directions  on  the  President,  but  as 
yet  he  had  yielded  to  neither  and  in  his  message  he 
was  still  bellicose,  though  decidedly  in  favor  of  the 
navy  as  opposed  to  the  army,  which  was  not  only 
natural  but  which  showed  that  some  inkling  of  the 
schemes  of  his  faithless  Cabinet  and  political  rival 
in  the  army  had  come  to  his  knowledge.  Prepara 
tions  for  war  went  on  and  the  intrigues  of  the 
Federalist  leaders  continued  to  complicate  our  for 
eign  relations;  yet  none  but  the  initiated  suspected 
what  an  explosion  was  to  come  in  Congress  on  Feb 
ruary  1 8th  following. 

If  Macon  experienced  any  joy  in  seeing  his  op- 

1  See  Rufus  King's  Correspondence,  1797-1798  ;  Schouler,  I.,  422-424. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  sd  Sess.,  2420. 


134  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

ponents  in  straights  he  had  ample  opportunity  from 
the  very  beginning  of  that  short  session  to  indulge 
himeslf.  Harper's  first  move  in  the  House  was  for 
getting  twenty  thousand  copies  of  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws  printed  for  distribution  among  the 
people,  who  he  declared  were  being  worked  upon 
and  wofully  deceived  by  designing  people  inter 
ested  in  the  humiliation  of  the  Government.  He 
had  heard  some  of  the  complaints  which  were  begin 
ning  to  come  in  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  he 
was  very  desirous  of  giving  the  people  opportunity 
for  a  "correct  understanding  of  the  laws"  to  which 
objection  was  being  made.  Macon's  friend,  Clai- 
borne  of  Tennessee,  replied  by  moving  a  resolution 
for  publishing  forty  thousand  copies  of  the  Con 
stitution  to  be  sent  out  at  the  same  time  as  the 
copies  of  the  Alien  laws.  Macon  spoke  favorably 
to  Claiborne's  motion,  referring  in  a  tantalizing  way 
to  the  prevailing  ignorance  concerning  the  Consti 
tution  in  the  most  populous  sections  of  the  country. 
Claiborne's  resolution  blocked  the  way  to  Harper's 
so  completely  that  neither  passed. 

Doctor  Logan  was  to  escape  but  narrowly  a 
much  more  serious  result  of  his  activity  in  Paris 
than  the  coldness  of  Washington  and  the  closed 
doors  of  the  State  Department.  A  resolution  was 
brought  into  Congress,  which  would  have  had  him 
hanged  as  a  traitor  for  going  to  Paris  and  bringing 
back  a  peace  message,  and  would  have  brought 
Jefferson,  the  Vice- President,  before  the  bar  of  the 
Senate  on  the  charge  of  conspiring  with  traitors. 
Griswold,  having  seen  what  a  successful  case  his 
friend  Sitgreaves  had  made  out  against  Blount  in 
getting  him  expelled  from  the  Senate,  which  to  be 
sure  was  richly  deserved,  was  ready  to  try  what 
could  be  done  with  the  arch-enemy  of  Federalism 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  135 

for  having  given  countenance  to  and  been  in  corre 
spondence  with  Logan.1  Macon  made  his  first 
speech  in  favor  of  Jefferson  during  the  angry  debate 
on  this  resolution.  He  said  in  part :  "I  have  heard 
a  great  hue  and  cry  against  a  French  party  in  this 
country.  If  such  a  party  exists,  why  can  they  not 
be  pointed  out  ?  It  might  as  well  be  said  that  there 
is  a  British  party  in  this  country.  I  believe  there 
exists  full  as  much  reason  for  saying  the  one  as  the 
other  *  *  *.  British  subjects  and  British  capi 
tal  are  seen  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the 
other.  And  will  not  this  capital  and  these  persons 
produce  a  British  interest?  The  diplomatic  skill  of 
France  is  continually  preached  up.  It  has  been 
clearly  shown  that  they  have  never  discovered  any 
of  this  skill  in  sending  ministers  here.  But  to  speak 
out  my  opinion  I  believe  the  British  have  discov 
ered  more  diplomatic  skill  in  this  country  than  any 
other  nation,  and  that  the  present  British  minister 
has  shown  more  of  it  than  any  other.  *  *  * 

"It  has  been  said  that  certain  gentlemen  high  in 
authority  in  this  country  are  privy  to  the  departure 
of  the  gentleman  who  was  lately  in  France.  For 
aught  I  know,  these  gentlemen  may  have  named 
him.  But  it  is  a  little  extraordinary  that  in  our 
discussion  on  this  floor,  we  should  be  talking  of  an 
officer  in  our  government  (Jefferson)  being  a 
traitor.  Such  kind  of  language  can  have  no  other 
effect  but  to  create  suspicions  in  the  minds  of  peo 
ple  that  that  man  is  an  enemy  to  this  country.  This 
does  not  look  much  like  a  wish  to  conciliate  differ 
ences  of  opinion,  but  the  contrary.  If  gentlemen 
possess  proof  of  any  malconduct  in  the  person  par 
ticularly  alluded  to,  it  is  their  duty  to  bring  it  for 
ward  and  put  him  from  the  situation  in  which  he 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  5th  Cong.,  3d  Sess.,  2493  on. 


136  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

was  placed ;  and  if  any  such  should  be  brought,  no 
man  would  be  more  desirous  of  seeing  him  displaced 
than  I  should.  But  if  no  such  proof  exists,  it  is  a 
strange  way  of  supporting  the  constituted  authori 
ties  thus  to  caluminate  a  man  whom  the  people  have 
thought  proper  to  place  in  so  high  a  position. 

*  *  I  see  no  good  to  be  answered  by  this 
law ;  I  can  not  see  how  an  individual  can  usurp  the 
authority  of  the  Executive  (which  was  the  charge 
against  Logan)  *  *  *.  If  we  were  even  in  a 
state  of  war,  and  an  individual  could  prevail  upon 
our  enemy  to  offer  such  terms  of  peace  as  our  Gov 
ernment  would  be  willing  to  accept,  it  would  be  a 
good  thing.  I  can  not  conceive  of  a  situation  in 
which  such  a  law  as  is  proposed  can  operate;  and 
I  believe  our  Government  is  as  firmly  fixed  as  the 
land  we  live  on." 

The  resolution  against  which  Macon  was  con 
tending  passed  and  Griswold  was  named  chairman 
of  a  special  committee  to  bring  in  a  suitable  bill, 
which  was  reported  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 
a  few  days  later.  The  proposed  law  was  aimed 
directly  to  fit  the  case  of  Logan  and  Jefferson  and 
to  go  into  effect  immediately.  The  penalty  was  to 
be  a  heavy  fine  and  imprisonment.  Gallatin  and 
Macon  attempted  so  to  amend  the  bill  that  Logan 
might  escape  but  to  no  effect.1  Logan  became  the 
object  of  most  virulent  abuse  in  the  papers  and  of 
weeks  of  debate  in  Congress.  January  I4th  it  was 
so  threatening  that  he  published  a  letter  in  the 
papers  explaining  his  situation  in  Paris  and  declar 
ing  that  he  never  usurped  or  supported  any  official 
character  while  in  the  French  capital.  So  far  as 
his  motives  were  concerned  no  one  had  reason  to 
complain.  He  had  undertaken  an  independent  mis- 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  5th  Cong.,  3d  Ses=.,  2725^ 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.         137 

sion  to  Paris  with  the  aim  of  bringing  about  peace 
between  the  two  countries,  hardly  suspecting  that  it 
would  be  other  than  welcome  news  he  should  bring 
back,  if  his  enterprise  should  prove  successful. 
Jefferson's  motives  were  equally  honorable,  though 
his  countenancing  such  a  scheme  as  Logan's  can 
not  be  understood  other  than  as  an  attempt  to  frus 
trate  what  he  regarded  as  a  positive  policy  of  the 
administration.  Macon  saw  nothing  wrong  in  any 
one's  going  abroad  on  a  mission  of  peace  and  did 
not  deny  that  the  leaders  of  his  party  had  counte 
nanced  Logan.  Had  Logan  been  sent  as  an  avowed 
representative  of  leading  Republicans,  so  long  as 
the  aim  was  honorable  and  clearly  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people,  Macon  could  not  see  in  it  anything  repre 
hensible.  The  measure  became  a  law1,  but  no 
prosecution  was  undertaken  because  the  Federalists 
soon  had  so  much  trouble  in  their  own  camp  that 
there  was  little  time  left  for  the  punishment  of  such 
a  powerful  opponent  as  the  Vice-President. 

From  the  beginning  of  this  session  of  Congress 
petitions  against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  were 
pouring  in.  On  January  3ist  petitions  from  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  signed  by  more  than  four 
thousand  persons,  were  presented.  This  continued 
through  the  month  of  February,  but  with  the  result 
of  making  the  Federalists  only  the  more  dogged  in 
their  support  of  the  questionable  legislation.  Such 
petitions  were  to  them  proofs  of  the  perverseness  of! 
the  people.  Debate  after  debate  followed  as  these 
expressions  of  universal  dissatisfaction  piled  up  on 
the  table  of  the  House.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  North  Carolina  delegation  was  expressly 
instructed  to  work  for  the  repeal  of  the  unpopular 
laws.  Macon  spoke  often,  and  sometimes  with 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  sd  Sess.,  2721,  also  3795. 


138  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

intense  partisan  spirit,  for  the  referring  of  the  peti 
tions  and  for  a  repeal  of  the  laws. 

Jefferson  had  proposed  a  still  more  effective  way 
of  bringing  outside 'influence  to  bear.  The  legisla 
tures  of  the  States  were  to  pass  formal  resolutions 
against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  acts.  He  wrote  a 
series  of  reserves  which  were  sent  to  Kentucky 
in  November  and  which  were  soon  carried  through 
the  Assembly  of  that  State  and  sent  to  the  other 
vStates  for  endorsement.  These  resolutions  contained 
the  gist  of  the  Republican  platform  of  that  time 
and  they  became  a  sort  of  final  word  in  the  argu 
ments  of  States'  Rights'  men  from  that  time  until 
1860.  They  simply  declared  the  Constitution  to 
be  a  compact  beween  sovereign  States  which  are 
individually  the  judges  of  the  infraction  of  the 
same,  that  a  State  may  legally  withdraw  from  the 
Union  or  refuse  to  observe  a  law  of  Congress  which 
it  believes  unconstitutional.  These  resolutions  were 
presented  to  the  North  Carolina  Assembly  during 
the  next  year  and  "voted  under  the  table,"  as  Madi 
son  said.1  They  were  during  the  present  session 
of  Congress  giving  the  New  England  legislatures 
opportunity  for  endless  abuse  of  the  men  who 
favored  them.  They  influenced  Hamilton,  too,  to 
make  his  extraordinary  proposition  for  dividing 
the  States.  Hamilton's  ideas  were  promptly  brought 
to  bear  on  Congress  by  his  friends  in  the  debates  of 
this  session. 

On  the  subject  of  the  French  relations  progress 
was  singularly  slow.  The  Republicans  had  been 
calling  for  the  reports  of  our  envoys  since  the  open 
ing  of  the  session,  and  especially  for  the  later 
despatches  of  Gerry,  which  were  known  to  be  of  a 
more  friendly  nature  than  the  preceding  ones. 

i  Madison's  Works,  II.,  152. 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.         139 

These  documents  had  been  in  Pickering's^  hands 
since  October,  but  since  they  were  not  likely  to  fan 
the  embers  of  war  into  flames,  the  Secretary  of  State 
was  preparing  a  report  on  them  to  suit  his  and, 
Hamilton's  ends.  Hamilton  had  made  known  his 
plans  to  Dayton,  Speaker  of  the  House,  to  Gunn 
and  Otis:  (i)  that  war  with  France  was  to  be 
brought  on  as  soon  as  possible,  to  which  end  Con 
gress  was  to  go  on  increasing  the  army  and  navy ; 
(2)  that  a  division  of  the  great  States  in  such  a 
way  as  to  weaken  the  force  of  their  opposition  was 
necessary;  (3)  that  the  Alien  laws  should  be  more 
strictly  enforced.  "Why,"  he  asked,  "are  not  these 
renegade  Aliens  connected  with  some  of  these  (Re 
publican)  presses  sent  away?  These  laws  should 
not  be  a  dead  letter."1  Hamilton  was  becoming 
impatient  with  the  delay  of  the  war  and  was  help 
ing  Pickering  "touch  up"  his  message  on  the  French 
question  so  that  Congress  and  the  country  would  be 
excited  into  an  immediate  declaration  of  hostili 
ties.  A  despatch  which  came  from  France  about 
the  beginning  of  the  session  informing  the  State 
Department  that  the  most  obnoxious  of  their  laws 
concerning  us  had  been  repealed  was  not  suffered  to 
be  made  public.  This  dispatch  announced  that  the 
French  Government  had  repealed  its  law  authorizing 
the  seizure  as  pirates  of  all  Americans  who  were 
found  on  the  enemy's  ships.2  Pickering  did  all  he 
could  to  get  Hamilton's  ideas  expressed  officially 
to  the  House,  but  Adams  had  grown  unmanage 
able,  and  he  gave  the  Secretary's  message,  a  chaste 
pruning  down,  remarking  at  the  time,  "I  am  not 
going  to  send  to  Congress  a  phillipic  against  Mr. 

1  Schouler,  I.,  438-439. 

2  This  and  other  practices  of  both  France  and  England  of  that  day 
show  only  too  clearly  that  American  Independence  was  not  acknowl 
edged  by  the  European  powers. 


140  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Gerry/'1  Still  the  administration  kept  up  a  show 
of  war,  and  apparently  endorsed  Otis'  resolution  of 
January  i8th,  which  demanded  a  suspension  of 
all  diplomatic  relations  with  France.  While  Otis 
was  speaking  the  long  looked-for  documents  were 
brought  into  the  House,  and  after  three  hours  of 
reading,  a  motion  was  made  for  publishing  them 
and  especially  Pickering's  opinions.  This  paper  of 
Pickering's  was  meant  chiefly  as  a  campaign  docu 
ment.  Macon  staunchly  opposed  the  suspension  of 
formal  relations  with  France  because  the  outlook 
for  peace  was  more  promising  than  ever  before; 
and  the  resolution  ordering  all  the  State  Depart 
ment  documents,  with  Pickering's  commentary, 
printed,  he  opposed  in  his  characteristic  way:  "I 
object  because  it  is  not  founded  in  custom;  let  the 
official  papers  in  this  instance  as  formerly  go  out  to 
the  people  as  heretofore.  They  went  without  com 
ment  and  so  should  these.  I  do  not  think  there  is 
any  occasion  to  direct  the  people  how  to  think.  /  be 
lieve  the  great  body  of  them  -will  always  think  right  if 
left  to  themselves.  Was  it  because  former  commu 
nications  (on  this  subject)  looked  more  like  war 
than'  these,  that  they  were  given  to  the  people  with 
out  commentary;  and,  that  because  these  have  the 
appearance  of  peace,  it  is  necessary  to  twist  them  to 
look  a  contrary  way?"1 

The  wrangling  in  the  House  and  the  intriguing 
in  the  Cabinet  were  still  going  on  when  Adams, 
casting  all  but  the  real  interest  of  the  country  to  the 
winds,  threw  a  bomb  into  the  Senate  by  nominat 
ing,  on  February  i8th,  William  Vans  Murray,  then 
Minister  in  Holland,  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
the  French  republic.  On  the  same  day  Sedgwick, 
then  a  member  of  the  Senate,  having  some  fears, 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong.,  sd  Sess.,  2736. 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPRF.MACY.         141 

it  seems,  that  Adams  was  about  to  break  bounds, 
had  gone  to  the  President  asking  his  opinion  of 
Hamilton's  army  measures.  The  President  said : 
"If  you  must  have  an  army,  I  will  give  it  to  you; 
but  remember  it  will  make  the  government  more 
unpopular  than  all  their  other  acts.  The  people 
have  submitted  with  more  patience  than  any  people 
ever  did,  to  the  burden  of  taxes,  which  have  been 
liberally  laid  on,  but  their  patience  will  not  last 
always."  And  a  moment  later  Adams  asked  what 
additional  authority  the  Senate  meant  to  give  Wash 
ington.  Sedgwick  somewhat  demurely  replied: 
"None,  all  that  has  been  proposed  is  to  give  him  a 
new  title — that  of  General"  (Hamilton  desired  to 
be  Lieutenant-General).  Adams:  "What!  Are 
you  going  to  appoint  him  general  over  the  Presi 
dent?  I  have  not  been  so  blind  but  I  have  seen  a 
combined  effort  among  those  who  call  themselves 
friends  of  government,  to  annihilate  the  essential 
powers  given  to  the  President."  Hamilton  was 
in  Philadelphia  at  the  time  and  Sedgwick  went  at 
once  to  report  to  him  Adams'  ill  humor.  The  Fed 
eralists  were  expecting  some  difficulty  with  their 
President,  but  that  he  would  destroy  at  one  blow 
all  their  schemes  by  sending  another  representative 
to  Paris  was  a  bolder  step  than  they  thought  his 
love  of  office  would  allow  him  to  take.  In  order  to 
conciliate  the  Senate  Adams  finally  added  Patrick 
Henry  and  Chief  Justice  Ellsworth  to  the  nomina 
tion.  Henry  declined  to  serve  and  Governor  Davie 
of  North  Carolina,  as  has  been  noted,  was  sent  in 
his  stead. 

This  independent  move  of  Adams  deserved  for 
him  a  better  reward  than  he  ever  received.  It  kept 
the  nation  from  entering  into  an  alliance  with  Eng 
land  against  Revolutionary  France,  from  entering 


142  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

into  those  very  entangling  alliances  against  which 
Washington  had  so  earnestly  warned  Congress  two 
years  before.  It  dismayed  and  disconcerted  the 
Federalists  for  a  while;  still  the  President  did  not 
allow  preparations  for  war  to  relax  and  so  the  large 
appropriations  were  all  voted.  And  in  defiance  of 
public  opinion  the  salaries  of  public  officials  were 
liberally  increased.  Adams  hastened  away  to 
Quincy  at  the  close  of  Congress,  leaving  his  dis 
gruntled  Cabinet  at  Hamilton's  beck  and  call.  An 
army  of  officers  without  companies  and  ensigns  of 
a  navy  on  paper  drew  their  salaries  regularly  and 
having  nothing  to  do  they  were  very  much  in  evi 
dence  about  Philadelphia.  Hamilton  and  King 
still  urged  the  President  to  allow  the  Miranda  expe 
dition  to  be  entered  upon,  and  the  sharp  encounter 
between  the  French  and  the  American  naval  vessels, 
L/Insurgente  and  Constellation,  gave  ample  oppor 
tunity  for  beginning  war  in  earnest. 

On  the  dissolution  of  the  Merlin  Directory  Pick 
ering  and  Hamilton  made  a  last  attempt  to  undo 
what  the  President  had  done  toward  bringing  about 
more  peaceable  relations,  by  delaying  the  departure 
of  our  Commissioners.  Message  after  message 
was  hastened  off  to  Quincy  to  get  the  order  for  a 
suspension ;  Cabot,  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
was  sent  to  see  Adams  in  person.  Pickering,  Wol- 
cott  and  McHenry,  of  the  Cabinet,  threatened  to 
take  matters  into  their  own  hands.  Stoddard,  true 
to  Adams  as  he  was,  suggested  to  him  a  speedy 
return  to  Philadelphia.  The  President  came  at 
once  and  met  the  Cabinet  in  Trenton,  its  temporary 
headquarters.  Hamilton  and  Ellsworth  were  there, 
which  still  further  excited  the  jealousy  of  Adams 
and  determined  him  on  sending  off  the  Commis 
sioners  at  once.  Next  morning  at  daybreak,  i.  e., 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.         143 

October  15,  1799,  he  sent  Pickering  peremptory 
orders  for  the  Commissioners  to  depart  for  France. 
Hamilton  hastened  to  see  the  President  in  order  to 
dissuade  him  from  this  final  step,  but  to  no  avail. 

During  this  summer  and  autumn  the  State  elec 
tions  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Fries  riots  in  the  same 
State,  and  the  tumult  of  the  Sedition  lawsuits,  all 
tended  to  discourage  the  dominant  party.  Adams 
alone  had  reason  for  satisfaction  in  the  staunch  per 
sonal  support  of  New  England  in  the  autumn  elec 
tions.  Lyon  was  prosecuted  for  sedition  and  cast 
into  prison ;  the  editor  of  a  Republican  paper,  the 
New  London  Bee,  in  Connecticut,  was  also  impris 
oned;  Duane,  of  the  Aurora,  was  arrested  on  a 
warrant  issued  for  him  before  the  Sedition  act 
became  law,  so  anxious  were  the  Federalists  to  pun 
ish  him.  Judge  Chase  rode  the  southern  circuit 
and  sought  out  the  enemies  of  his  party  to  admin 
ister  them  a  wholesome  chastisement  so  that  Vir 
ginia  and  North  Carolina  were  beginning  to  tire 
of  the  men  they  had  so  enthusiastically  endorsed  a 
year  before. 

It  was  not  then  a  discouraging  outlook  for  the 
Republicans  when  they  met  in  Congress  December 
2,  1799.  Their  opponents  were  divided  into  East 
ern  and  Southern  wings.  John  Marshall  of  Vir 
ginia  was  dubious  of  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws,  as  were  Ames  and  Sedg- 
wick  of  the  true  Federalism  of  any  man  who 
opposed  them.  The  majority  of  the  party  in  power 
was  overwhelming  nominally,  but  when  test  votes 
were  taken  in  matters  that  affected  seriously 
the  interest  of  the  South  the  Federalists  found  it  a 
greater  difficulty  than  ever  to  keep  their  new  mem 
bers  in  line. 

In  the  organization  of  the  Sixth  Congress,  Macon 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSIT 


NATHANIEL  MACON. 

developed  nnexpected  strength  for  the  Speakership ; 
it  was  only  by  a  majority  of  six  that  his  old  competi 
tor,  Sedgwick,  now  returned  to  the  House,  was 
chosen  over  him.1  Since  he  became  the  leader  of 
the  North  Carolina  delegation  in  1795,  Macon  had 
been  steadily  gaining  in  popularity;  during  the 
extra  session  of  1797  he  was  constantly  referred  to 
on  matters  of  unfinished  business  of  the  previous 
session.  The  previous  practice  of  the  House  in 
almost  all  important  cases  he  remembered  and  stated 
on  occasion ;  for  the  saving  of  time  and  the  expedi 
tion  of  measures  his  suggestions  had  become  more 
and  more  apt.2  He  had  developed,  too,  as  keen  a 
sense  of  precedent  as  if  he  had  been  an  English  par 
liamentarian.  Speakers  were  chosen  then  for  their 
ability  as  moderators,  for  their  judicious  trend  of 
mind  and  their  knowledge  of  parliamentary  prac 
tice,  all  of  which  Macon  possessed  in  so  eminent  a 
degree  as  to  be  the  undisputed  choice  of  his  party. 
This  session  was  important  in  Macon's  career 
because  he  then  for  the  first  time  met  that  extraor 
dinary  young  man  from  "up  the  Roanoke,"  who 
was  to  exert  more  influence  over  Macon's  future 
life  than  any  other  person  ever  did,  and  who  was  in 
turn  to  be  more  influenced  by  him  than  by  any  other. 
This  was  John  Randolph,  not  yet  "of  Roanoke." 
Macon  had  made  a  short  speech  against  a  proposed 
change  in  the  census  law  and  soon  afterward  that 
youthful  figure  arose  and  in  a  strangely  fascinating 
voice  addressed  some  remarks  to  the  House  in 
agreement  with  what  Macon  had  said.  Randolph 
was  only  twenty-six  years  old  and  looked  still 
younger;  he  had  attained  notoriety  a  year  before 
this  time  by  making  a  three  hours'  harangue  at 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  6th  Cong.,  istSess.,  186. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  sth  Cong  ,  i?t  Sess.,  238 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.          145 

Charlotte  Court  House  in  Virginia  against  the 
aged  Henry;  he  had  been  defeated  for  the  Assem 
bly  by  his  distinguished  opponent,  but  had  won 
such  distinction  in  the  campaign  of  1798  that  he 
was  sent  the  next  year  to  Congress.  John  Ran 
dolph  was  a  man  who  could  not  pass  through  a 
street  without  attracting  all  eyes  to  himself.  One 
who  knew  him  has  left  us  the  following  descrip 
tion  :  "His  long  thin  legs,  about  as  thick  as  a  stout 
walking  cane,  and  of  much  the  same  shape,  were 
encased  in  a  pair  of  tight,  small  clothes,  so  tight 
that  they  seemed  part  and  parcel  of  the  limbs  of 
the  wearer.  Handsome  white  stockings  were  fas 
tened  with  great  tidiness  at  the  knees  by  a  small 
gold  buckle,  and  over  them,  coming  about  half  way 
up  the  calf,  were  a  pair  of  what  I  believe  are  called 
hose,  coarse  and  country-knit  *  *  *.  He  trod 
like  an  Indian,  without  turning  his  toes  out,  but 
planking  them  down  straight  ahead.  It  was  the 
fashion  of  those  days  to  wear  a  fan-tailed  coat  with 
a  small  collar  ,and  buttons  far  apart  behind,  and 
few  on  the  breast.  Mr.  Randolph's  were  the 
reverse  of  all  this,  and  instead  of  his  coat  being  fan- 
tailed,  it  was  what  Knights  of  the  Needle  call  swal 
low-tailed  *  *  *.  His  waist  was  remarkably 
slender,  so  slender  that,  as  he  stood  with  his  arms 
akimbo,  he  could  easily,  as  I  thought,  with  his  long 
bony  fingers  have  spanned  it  *  *  *.  About  his 
neck  he  wore  a  large  white  cravat,  in  which  his 
chin  was  occasionally  buried  as  he  moved  his  head 
in  conversation ;  no  shirt  collar  was  perceptible ; 
every  other  person  seemed  to  pride  himself  on  the 
size  of  his,  as  they  wore  them  large.  Mr.  Ran 
dolph's  complexion  was  precisely  that  of  a  mummy ; 
withered,  saffron,  dry,  and  bloodless;  you  could 
not  have  placed  a  pin's  point  on  his  face  where  you 
10 


146  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

would  not  have  touched  a  wrinkle.  His  lips  were 
thin  and  compressed  and  colorless ;  the  chin,  beard 
less  as  a  boy's,  was  broad  for  the  size  of  his  face, 
which  was  small ;  his  nose  was  straight,  with  noth 
ing  remarkable  in  it,  except,  perhaps,  it  was  too 
short.  He  wore  a  fur  cap,  which  he  took  off, 
standing  a  few  moments  uncovered.  I  observed 
that  his  head  was  quite  small,  a  characteristic  which 
is  said  to  have  marked  many  men  of  talent  *  *  *. 
Mr.  Randolph's  hair  was  remarkably  fine — fine  as 
an  infant's  and  thin;  it  was  very  long,  and  was 
parted  with  great  care  on  the  top  of  the  head,  and 
was  tied  behind  with  a  bit  of  black  ribbon,  about 
three  inches  from  his  neck;  the  whole  of  it  formed 
a  queue  no  thicker  than  the  little  finger  of  a  deli 
cate  girl.  His  forehead  was  low  with  no  bumpology 
about  it;  but  his  eye,  though  sunken,  was  startling 
in  its  glance.  It  was  not  an  eye  of  profound,  but 
of  impulsive  and  passionate  thought,  with  an  expres 
sion  at  times  such  as  physicians  describe  to  be  that 
of  insanity;  but  an  insanity  which  seemed  to 
quicken,  not  to  destroy  intellectual  acuteness.  I 
never  beheld  an  eye  that  struck  me  more.  He  lifted 
his  long,  bony  finger  impressively  as  he  conversed, 
and  jesticulated  with  it  in  a  peculiar  manner."1 

Whether  Macon  had  ever  met  Randolph  before 
the  opening  of  Congress,  there  is  no  means  of -tell 
ing.  It  is  not  improbable,  however,  that  he  had 
heard  of  the  impertinent  youth  and  kinsman  of  Jef 
ferson,  who  had  met  Patrick  Henry  in  debate  and 
had  not  come  off  worsted,  for  all  these  remarkable 
men  lived  in  adjoining  districts  and  were  almost 
neighbors  in  that  day  of  hard  riding.  But  if 
Macon  had  never  heard  of  the  man,  the  second 
speech  he  made,  of  only  one  short  paragraph,  was 

i  F.  W.  Thomas  :  Character  Sketches  :  Randolph,  14-16. 


MACON  AND   FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.          147 

sufficient  to  invite  his  friendship.  A  petition  of 
"free  blacks" — the  very  words  were  objectionable 
to  Macon — had  been  presented  to  the  House  by  Mr. 
Wain  of  Pennsylvania.  After  some  debate,  the 
new  member  from  Virginia  began  to  rise  from  his 
seat,  gradually  unfolding  his  long-jointed  limbs 
until  it  appeared  there  was  no  end  to  his  length. 
When  he  was  fully  erect  he  declared  that  no  encour 
agement  whatever  should  be  given  to  such  petitions, 
and  he  hoped  that  this  would  be  "the  last  time  the 
business  of  the  House  would  be  entered  upon,  and 
the  interests  and  feelings  of  the  Southern  States  be 
put  in  jeopardy,  by  similar  applications."  It  was 
beyond  the  power  of  the  House  and  he  thought  it 
might  be  so  declared  once  for  all.  Such  a  speech 
as  this  went  straight  to  Macon's  heart.  This  was 
surely  no  compromising  Virginia  Federalist  who 
had  come  into  Congress  by  the  political  eruptions 
of  the  past  year.  The  yeas  and  nays  on  this 
"embarrassing  question"  were  taken  once  and  then 
only  on  the  part  of  the  petition  calling  for  legisla 
tive  relief  from  Congress.  It  was  decided  by  a 
vote  of  eighty-five  to  one  that  Congress  had  no 
constitutional  powers  whatever  to  deal  with  the 
subject.  The  one  dissenter  was  George  Thatcher  of 
Massachusetts. 

The  third  time  Randolph  took  any  part  in  the 
debates  completed,  as  it  appears,  the  probationary 
state  of  their  almost  life-long  friendship.  With  all 
hopes  of  the  war  gone  the  Federalists,  it  appears, 
would  have  ceased  calling  for  appropriations.  On 
the  contrary  additional  expenditure  was  asked,  and, 
when  Nicholas  introduced  a  resolution  for  a  reduc 
tion  of  the  army,  it  met  with  determined  opposi 
tion.  Macon  made  his  usual  speech  along  the  line 
of  "Retrenchment  and  reform."  "Some  people 


148  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

think  borrowing  five  or  six  millions  a  trifling  thing," 
he  said.  "We  may  leave  it  for  our  children  to  pay. 
This  is  unjust.  If  we  contract  a  debt  we  ought  to 
pay  it,  and  not  leave  it  to  your  children.  What 
should  we  think  of  a  father  who  would  run  in  debt 
and  leave  it  for  his  children  to  pay  ?  But  the  want 
of  money  is  not  regarded.  To  be  sure  it  is  much 
easier  to  vote  money  than  to  lay  taxes,  because  peo 
ple  do  not  directly  feel  the  vote,  but  if  taxed  they 
must  instantly  know  it ;  therefore  loaning  is  the  way 
most  practiced.  Notwithstanding  the  great  increase 
of  capital  which  the  gentleman  (Henry  Lee)  told 
us  of,  from  eighteen  to  fifty  millions,  yet  we  have 
been  obliged  with  all  this  increase  to  borrow 
money,  and  now  are  told  we  want  somewhere  about 
five  millions  more  this  year.  We  are  told  the  peo 
ple  are  fond  of  economy,  this  is  true,  and  I  think 
they  will  willingly  pay  all  the  taxes  that  we  can 
convince  them  are  necessary;  but  ought  we  not  to 
save  all  the  expenses  which  are  not  absolutely  neces 
sary  ?  *  *  *  Another  loan  ?  We  can  not  make 
money  here  by  any  means  but  work;  labor  is  our 
only  resource,  therefore  our  money  concerns  ought 
to  be  well  husbanded."  And  a  little  further,  "If  we 
get  ourselves  poor  while  the  enemy  is  at  a  distance 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  resort  to  enormous  taxes  if 
he  should  really  come  to  our  doors."  The  army 
was  to  him  entirely  useless.  "Whenever  an  army 
is  really  wanted  the  patriotism  of  the  people  will 
always  supply  the  emergency" — a  militia,  a  good 
militia  was  everything  "a  free  country"  required.  A 
little  later  Randolph  arose  to  defend  the  resolution 
for  the  reduction  of  the  army  by  ridiculing  in  his 
inimitable  manner  this  hireling  army,  in  a  way 
which  every  Southern  Republican  must  have  en 
joyed,  and  which  Macon  seems  to  have  liked,  though 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.          149 

his  own  even-tempered  nature  would  never  have 
permitted  him  to  say  the  same:  "The  military 
parade  which  meets  the  eye  in  almost  every  direc 
tion  excites  the  gall  of  our  citizens ;  they  feel  a 
just  indignation  at  the  sight  of  loungers,  who  live 
upon  the  public,  who  consume  the  fruits  of  their 
honest  industry  under  the  pretext  of  protecting 
them  from  a  foreign  yoke.  They  put  no  confi 
dence,  sir,  in  the  protection  of  a  handful  of  raga 
muffins  ;  they  know  that  when  danger  comes  they 
must  meet  it,  and  they  only  ask  arms  at  your  hands." 
After  a  rather  long  but  telling  address  which  seems 
to  have  made  the  Federalists  wince,  to  which  they 
were  compelled,  however,  to  listen,  by  his  fasci 
nating  manner  and  startling  wit,  Randolph  took  his 
seat.  He  had  said  too  much,  perhaps,  for  some  of 
his  party,  but  all  recognized  in  him  a  leader  whose 
tongue  was  equal  to  the  proverbial  two-edged 
sw'ord.1 

That  night  Macon  and  Randolph  went  to  the 
theater  together  and  some  young  officers  of  the 
navy  took  occasion  to  resent  in  a  personal  way  the 
epithet,  ragamuffin,  which  had  been  so  successfully 
applied  in  the  speech  of  the  afternoon.  The  officers 
came  repeatedly  into  the  box  where  Macon  and 
Randolph  were  sitting,  repeating  at  every  oppor 
tunity  the  word  "ragamuffin"  until  it  was  quite 
clear  that  some  difficulty  might  be  expected.  Macon 
called  the  attention  of  Van  Rensalser,  who  sat  near 
him,  to  the  matter,  and  when  the  theater  was  over, 
Macon  and  his  friends  formed  a  sort  of  guard  to 
see  Randolph  safely  home.  On  descending  the 
steps  an  attempt  at  personal  violence  was  made,  but 
Macon's  stalwart  form  and  big  walking  cane  were 
sufficient  to  convince  the  young  navy  officers  that  a 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  6th  Cong.,  ist  Sess..  298. 


150  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

safe  distance  in  the  rear  would  be  better  for  them. 
Randolph  was  escorted  to  his  apartments.  Next  day 
he  very  unwisely  laid  the  matter  before  the  President 
and  that,  too,  in  a  half-insulting  manner.  Adams 
humiliated  Randolph  by  sending  the  letter  at  once  to 
the  House,  where  it  was  read  publicly  and  not  a  little 
merriment  was  had  at  the  expense  of  its  author.  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  subject 
and  Macon  was  named  a  member  of  it,  but  he  was, 
by  special  request,  excused  from  serving.  Nothing 
was  done  by  the  committee;  but  the  ridiculous  atti 
tude  into  which  this  episode,  especially  the  latter 
part  of  it,  brought  Randolph,  did  not  lessen  Macon's 
admiration  for  him.  From  this  time,  on  they  were 
inseparable  friends,  though  as  different  as  two 
human  beings  could  well  be :  Macon  plain,  ten  years 
older,  experienced  in  parliamentary  practice,  gifted 
with  no  powers  of  eloquence  whatever,  a  staid 
judge  in  the  halls  of  Congress;  Randolph  young, 
inexperienced,  a  brilliant  wit  and  more  brilliant 
orator  and  "proud  as  forty  kings."  On  one  point 
they  were  entirely  agreed :  The  State  is  everything 
in  this  American  Union.  And  this  it  was,  that 
brought  them  to  agree  in  most  other  things,  and 
which  caused  them  to  call  each  other  Davids  and 
Jonathans  and  to  spend  weeks  on  each  other's  plan 
tation  during  the  intervals  of  Congress  like  school 
boys  on  their  vacation  trips. 

Macon,  faithful  to  the  instructions  from  the  North 
Carolina  Assembly,  introduced  a  resolution  in  Con 
gress  on  January  23d  demanding  the  repeal  of  the 
Sedition  law.  It  was  as  follows : 

"Resolved,  That  the  second  section  of  the  act, 
passed  I4th  of  July,  one  thousand,  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-eight,  entitled  an  act  in  addition  to  an 
act,  etc.,  *  *  *  ought  to  be  repealed ;  and  the 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.         151 

offences  therein  specified  shall  remain  punishable 
as  at  common  law." 

Though  the  Federalists  purposely  interrupted  him 
by  laughing  and  talking,  he  proceeded  at  length  to 
defend  the  resolution:  (i)  beyond  a  doubt  this 
was  not  a  subject  over  which  the  National  Govern 
ment  had  any  authority,  which,  he  claimed,  was 
shown  by  the  debates  of  the  several  State  conven 
tions,  i787-'88.  To  convince  the  House  of  this  he 
quoted  somewhat  at  length  from  the  debates  of 
these  conventions.  (2)  It  was  good  policy  that  any 
citizen  be  allowed  absolute  freedom  to  discuss  every 
act  of  government,  and  that  there  was  no  other 
effective  means  for  this  but  the  press.  "If  elec 
tions  are  to  be  free,  the  people  ought  to  have  the 
liberty  of  freely  investigating  the  character,  con 
duct  and  ability  of  each  candidate  for  any  place  of 
public  trust.  (3)  The  press  is  amongst  the  best 
gifts  bestowed  on  man,  its  benefits  are  incalculable 
and  if  we  had  the  power  to  touch  it,  prudence  would 
dictate  to  us  to  do  it  with  great  caution.  Bayard  of 
Delaware  made  an  amendment  with  intent  to 
destroy  the  repealing  resolution  of  Macon  and  sup 
ported  his  amendment  with  a  long  speech.  The 
amendment  was  passed  and  Macon  voted  against 
his  own  motion  in  that  emasculated  form,  so  that 
the  Sedition  laws  were  left  standing  until  they 
expired  by  limitation  a  year  later. 

At  the  opening  of  the  second  session  of  the  Sixth 
Congress,  Macon,  in  recognition  of  his  ten  years' 
opposition  to  almost  all  claims,  was  made  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Claims,  and,  as  it  used  to  be 
said  of  that  honest  German  "Watchdog  of  the  Treas 
ury,"  Peter  Hagner,  the  Second  Auditor,  it  was 
indeed  a  deserving  claim  which  ran  the  gauntlet  of 
Macon's  committee.  Such  a  Chairman  of  the  Com- 


152  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

mittee  on  Claims  in  Washington  at  the  beginning  of 
the  twentieth  century  would  be  a  holy  terror,  would 
hardly  escape  lynching  at  the  hands  of  hungry  sol 
diers  who  never  shot  a  gun.  One  of  the  first  resolu 
tions  which  came  before  the  House  at  this  session 
was  that  "a  mausoleum  of  American  granite  and 
marble,  in  pyramid  form,  one  hundred  feet  square 
at  the  base,  and  of  a  proportionate  height,  shall  be 
erected  in  testimony  of  the  love  and  gratitude  of  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  to  George  Washing 
ton."  Macon  distinguished  himself  unenviably  by 
making  a  speech  against  the  resolution,  which,  since 
it  gave  rise  to  much  criticism  of  an  adverse  nature, 
deserves  some  special  attention  here.  He  opposed 
it  (i)  because  the  cost  ($70,000,  estimated)  was  too 
great:  "I  well  know  how  hardly  earned  is  the 
money  from  which  this  enormous  (  !)  sum  must  pro 
ceed.  But  this  is  only  a  beginning;  the  final  cost 
might  be  many  times  more.  (2)  I  saw  no  good 
purpose  likely  to  be  answered  by  it  under  the  sun. 
Can  stones  show  gratitude?  If  the  nation  wished 
to  show  gratitude,  let  them  do  it  by  making  an  his 
tory  of  the  life  of  Washington  a  school-book.  Our 
children  then  will  learn  and  imitate  his  virtues. 
This  will  be  rendering  the  highest  tribute  to  his 
fame,  by  making  it  the  instrument  of  enlightening 
the  mind  and  improving  the  heart."  (3)  This 
expending  of  millions,  which  he  predicted  would  be 
the  result,  was  "useless  and  pernicious  ostentation." 
He  then  referred  naively  to  Aristides  and  Hampden, 
saying  no  monuments  had  ever  been  erected  to  them, 
yet  every  man  knew  of  their  service.  "Washington 
is  admired  and  beloved  by  all.  No  one  can  be 
charged  with  a  desire  to  diminish  his  fame  by  oppo 
sing  a  useless  expenditure  of  money.  The  prece 
dent  ive  now  establish  will  be  auspicious  to  our 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  153 

future  measures.  If  we  decline  raising  a  mauso 
leum  to  Washington,  no  man  who  succeeds  him  can 
ever  expect  one  reared  to  his  memory." 

These  are  the  principal  grounds  of  Macon's 
opposition.  Whether  they  were  founded  in  gener 
ous  and  reasonable  gratitude,  the  reader  may  deter 
mine  for  himself.  They  were  principles  of  life 
with  him,  both  in  public  and  private  things.  His 
coterie  of  followers,  rather  the  followers  of  Jeffer 
son  in  the  strictest  sense,  held  the  same  views.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  Sage  of  Monticello  made 
provision  in  his  will  directing  that  only  a  plain 
granite  stone  some  six  feet  tall  should  mark  his 
grave.  And  later  it  will  be  seen  how  extremely 
eccentric  were  Macon's  own  directions  in  this  partic 
ular.  He  surely  believed  what  he  said  in  this  oppo 
sition  to  Washington's  monument;  and  most  of  his 
Republican  colleagues  agreed  with  him,  as  did  the 
majority  of  his  party  at  home.  Randolph,  too, 
opposed  the  Washington  monument;  but  he  spoke 
more  in  defence  of  his  beloved  Virginia  than  to  the 
question  under  consideration.  Virginians  had  been 
called  vandals  in  the  debates  on  this  subject,  and 
Williamsburg  was  pointed  out  as  a  place  where 
they  had  torn  down  monuments  erected  to  the  dead. 
The  bill  making  the  necessary  appropriations  finally 
passed  by  a  vote  of  forty-five  to  thirty-seven. 
Among  the  negatives  appeared  six  North  Carolin 
ians,  one  an  ex-Governor  of  the  State  who  had  done 
most  to  get  the  crowning  work  of  Washington,  the 
Constitution,  adopted  by  his  State.1 

Instead  of  allowing  the  sedition  law  to  die  an 
easy  death,  the  Federalists  brought  in  a  resolution 
this  session  to  renew  it.  This  was  more  than 

i  Richard  Dobbs  Spaight. 


154  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

Macon  could  endure,  and  once  more  we  find  him 
contending  with  his  superiors  in  debate  for  the 
liberty  of  the  press.  He  went  over  the  usual  argu 
ments,  and  preferred  the  customary  charges  against 
his  opponents.  Answering  the  taunt  that  he  always 
found  a  measure  unconstitutional  when  it  did  not 
agree  with  his  policy,  he  said :  "The  answer  to  this 
question  is  very  easy.  There  is  another  part  of  the 
House  that  never  questions  the  constitutionality  of 
anything;  and  if  one  part  questions  the  constitu 
tionality  of  everything,  the  other  does  not  of  any 
thing;  one  side  believes  it  has  limits,  the  other 
believes  it  has  no  limits."  The  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  to  which  Macon  spoke,  reported  favorably 
on  the  resolution,  but  only  by  the  deciding  vote  of 
the  Speaker.  When  the  bill  came  up  for  a  final 
reading,  and  after  Jefferson's  election  had  sealed  the 
fate  of  the  Federalists,  it  failed  only  by  the  opposing 
vote  of  some  new  members  who  had  come  in  to  take 
places  accidentally  made  vacant. 

This  last  speech  of  Macon  on  the  sedition  acts, 
shows  more  of  partisanship  than  any  of  the  previous 
ones,  as  it  also  shows  him  to  be  more  conversant 
with  the  plans  of  his  party  and  those  of  his  oppo 
nents.  During  the  ten  years  of  constant  service  in 
the  House,  Macon  had  been  steadily  gaining  in 
experience ;  he  remembered  perfectly  its  important 
precedents,  and  was  recognized  at  this  time  as  being 
the  best  informed  member  on  the  rules  of  every  Con 
gress  since  he  had  been  attending.  He  was,  by 
sheer  force  of  character  and  by  ten  years  of  unflinch 
ing  consistency,  the  leader,  after  Gallatin,  of  his 
party  in  the  House.  I  have  already  pointed  out  that 
the  bent  of  his  mind  was  toward  the  judicial,  which, 
as  the  House  was  then  organized,  and  with  its  show 
of  non-partisanship  in  the  proceedings,  had  won 


MACON  AND  FEDERALIST  SUPREMACY.  155 

him  so  nearly  a  majority  of  votes  for  the  Speaker- 
ship  in  1799.  When  Macon  made  his  first  speech 
in  Congress,  he  was  scarcely  listened  to;  now  the 
leaders  of  the  Federalists  thought  it  necessary  to 
oppose  his  arguments  and  to  counteract  his  influ- 


i  Anuals  of  Congress,  5th  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  966  ;  note  Dennis'  reply  to 
Macon  ;  Schouler,  I.,  465, 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE:  REVOLUTION  OF  1800. 

The  struggles  of  the  two  great  parties  described 
in  the  last  chapters  had  aroused  the  country  by  the 
autumn  of  1800  as  it  had  never  been  before  since 
1776.  Each  party  was  doing  its  utmost  to  win  in 
the  coming  contest.  Jefferson  directed  the  cam 
paign  of  the  Republicans  from  his  seat  at  the  head 
of  the  Senate,  and  in  every  State  his  lieutenants  car 
ried  out  these  directions ;  copies  of  the  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  Resolutions,  as  they  were  designated 
after  the  debates  of  Virginia  on  the  subject  in  1799, 
were  sent  out  in  great  numbers;  trials  under  the 
sedition  laws  were  being  used  as  object  lessons, 
protests  against  the  carrying  of  State  law  cases  into 
the  Federal  Courts  were  drawn  by  Jefferson  himself 
and  after  being  assigned  by  the  most  prominent 
men  in  Virginia,  they  were  published  broadcast. 
Aaron  Burr  began  the  National  campaign  by  carry 
ing  the  city  of  New  York  for  the  Republicans.  Gerry 
exerted  a  powerful  influence  for  the  rising  party  in 
Massachusetts.  McKean  and  Mifflin,  having  gained 
the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  for  their  party  in  the 
fall  of  1799,  were  fanning  the  popular  prejudice 
against  the  Federalists  in  that  State  by  sending  out 
handbills,  which  represented  that  Adams,  if  re- 
elected,  would  help  Connecticut  win  in  the  great 
lawsuit  then  pending  against  Pennsylvania — claims 
for  large  indemnity  arising  out  of  the  old  Con 
necticut  land  patents.  When  Jefferson  took  his 
seat  as  Vice-President,  in  1796,  Madison  had 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  157 

resigned  from  Congress  in  order  to  re-enter  the 
Virginia  Assembly  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  that 
great  State  true  to  the  tenets  of  the  Jefferson  party. 
From  1796  to  1800  Madison  managed  Virginia  as 
adroitly  as  Burr  was  managing  New  York,  but  with- 
out  adopting  such  questionable  means  as  have  been 
charged  against  the  latter.  Monroe's  sudden  recall 
from  Paris,  in  1796,  had  been  the  means  of  greatly 
increasing  the  popularity  of  his  party.  Monroe  was 
Jefferson's  candidate  for  Governor  of  Virginia  in 
1800,  and  he  was  elected.  The  Breckenridge  and 
Nicholson  families  led  in  the  Kentucky  campaign  for 
Jefferson;  and  Henry  Clay,  then  a  young  man  just 
entering  politics,  made  speeches  advocating  Jeffer 
son's  election.  South  Carolina,  still  nominally 
under  the  control  of  the  Federalists  had  been 
wrought  upon  by  the  maltreatment  of  John  Rut- 
ledge  because  of  his  opposition  to  the  Jay  treaty; 
Washington  had  nominated  him,  in  1795,  for  a  seat 
on  the  Supreme  Court  bench;  but  the  Senate 
rejected  the  nomination  because  of  a  speech  made 
in  Charleston  against  the  adoption  of  the  celebrated 
treaty.  Rutledge  had  been  a  friend  of  both  Wash 
ington  and  Jefferson.  This  affair  carried  him  and 
all  his  connections  over  the  Republicans.  Edward 
Rutledge  and  Charles  Pinckney  were  both  taken 
into  Jefferson's  political  correspondence.  All  of 
these,  with  others  such  as  Gideon  Granger  of  the 
hopelessly  Federalist  state  of  Connecticut,  and  brave 
old  Sam  Adams,  of  Massachusetts  were  constantly 
receiving  Jefferson's  winsome  letters. 

In  the  year  1796  there  came  to  Philadelphia  a  man 
who  had  an  influential  role  in  the  Revolution  of 
1800,  a  political  refugee  from  Pitt's  Alien  and  Sedi 
tion  laws  in  England,  young  Joseph  Gales,  editor  of 


158  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

the  Sheffield  Register.  Gales  was  a  sensible,  well-ed 
ucated  man,  whose  newspaper  had  brought  him  more 
persecution  than  wealth.  Finding  it  impossible  for 
one  of  his  political  faith  to  edit  a  paper  in  peace 
under  George  III.,  he  migrated  to  America,  where 
he  began  again  in  Philadelphia;  but  to  his  surprise 
the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  was  a  no  safer  place  for 
him  than  Sheffieid  had  been.  It  would  have  been 
next  to  impossible  for  him  to  steer  safely  between 
the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  of  Federalist  and  Republi 
can  politics  in  that  chaldron  of  commotion.  One 
day  he  met  Nathaniel  Macon,  who  apparently 
recognized  the  worth  of  the  man  and  the  difficulties 
of  his  situation,  and  at  once  recommended  to  him 
the  establishment  of  a  newspaper  in  the  new  North 
Carolina  capital — Raleigh.  Gales  was  pleased  with 
the  prospect,  and  in  due  time  the  old  Sheffield  Reg 
ister  became  the  Raleigh  Register.1  All  the  liberal 
ideas,  which  had  brought  confiscation  of  type  and 
worse  in  old  England,  were  brought  along  and  soon 
became  the  permanent  stock  of  the  new  Raleigh 
paper.  Its  editor  at  once  took  decided  stand  for 
good  schools,  good  morals,  and  Republican  politics. 
Not  a  year  had  passed  before  good  Mr.  Gales  had 
mortally  offended  Mr.  Boylan,  editor  of  the  Feder 
alist  paper  in  the  town,  and  the  two  met  one 
day  on  Hillsboro  street,  and  without  let  or  hind 
rance  from  the  police,  fought  out  their  differences 
to  their  own  satisfaction.  The  source  of  the 
trouble  was  that  Gales  had  espoused  the  cause  of 
Jefferson  and  Macon  in  the  State,  and  his  paper 
had  turned  out  to  be  a  better  one  than  the  Republi 
cans  were  supposed  to  be  capable  of  establishing  or 
supporting.  The  Register  was  arousing  public 
opinion  in  North  Carolina  against  the  Adams  admin- 

1  Hudson  :  Journalism  in  the  United  States,  229. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  159 

istration.  It  published  each  week  the  accounts  of 
prosecutions  under  the  Sedition  laws  and  gave  full 
space  to  denunciations  of  a  standing  army,  citing 
an  example  close  at  home  in  the  shape  of  the  Sixth 
U.  S.  'Regiment,  then  encamped  in  Raleigh  two 
years  after  all  danger  of  war  was  passed,  which  the 
RepuK-i;  ans  thought  was  a  sort  of  garrison  to  keep 
the  Carolinians  in  subjection.1  Besides,  the  editor 
of  the  Register  managed  to  send  his  paper  free  to 
prospective  converts  to  his  party  in  all  parts  of  the 
State.2  Such  was  the  work  of  Macon's  young 
friend. 

The  operation  of  the  Federal  land  tax  was  hav 
ing  its  effect  also  on  the  voters  of  North  Carolina 
country  gentlemen.  The  Register  claimed  that  it 
took  directly  from  the  people  $200,000  a  year  for  the 
purposes  of  the  general  government  which  amount 
ed  to  more  than  one-third  of  the  total  annual  exports 
of  the  State.3  This  no  doubt  is  an  exaggerated 
statement,  for  it  is  doubtful  if  more  than  sixty  thou 
sand  a  year  was  collected  in  North  Carolina  from  the 
land  tax.  The  Tories,  who  had  been  pardoned  for 
their  behavior  in  the  Revolution  and  larger  numbers 
still  who  had  been  open  sympathizers  with  the  Brit 
ish,  but  who  had  not  become  amenable  to  the  law,  all 
supported  the  Federalist  party.4  Judge  Chase  rode 
the  Southern  Circuit  of  the  Supreme  Court  again  in 
1800,  and  gave  such  round  abuse  or  partizan  advice 
to  the  grand  juries  wherever  he  went,  and  consigned 
to  jail  or  punishment  with  such  heavy  fines  so  many 
who  were  considered  Republicans,  that  his  party 
could  not  escape  the  charge  of  using  the  National 

*  Raleigh  Register,  July  29,  1800  :  Sept,  5,  1801. 

2  Letter  of  Duncan  Cameron  to  John  Moore  of  Lincolnton,  Sept.  1802. 

3  Raleigh  Register,  July  29,  1800. 

4  Judge  Schenck  :  North  Carolina,  i78o-'8i :    case  of  Duncan  McFar- 
land ;  See  also  Legislative  Journals  for  1802. 


160  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

judiciary  for  political  purposes.  The  appointment 
of  Davie  in  i%99  in  place  of  Patrick  Henry  as  envoy 
to  France  had  been  a  graceful  recognition  of  the 
enthusiastic  support  the  North  Carolina  Federalists 
had  given  the  President;  but  in  the  then  so  evenly 
balanced  state  of  parties  it  was  an  unwise  step. 
Davie,  more  than  any  other  man,  could  have  con 
trolled  the  politics  of  the  State  in  the  interest  of 
Adams.  It  will  be  remembered  Davie  had  been 
chosen  Governor  in  1798.  The  general  practice  of 
both  parties  was  to  retain  a  Governor  three  years, 
which  would  certainly  have  been  continued  with  so 
popular  and  able  a  man  as  Davie.  This  would  have 
given  the  State  a  Federalist  Governor  in  1800.  The 
State  Senate  was  still  in  their  hands  and  the  House 
was  Republican  by  only  a  small  majority.  With 
Davie  removed  from  the  State,  the  balance  of 
power  fell  to  the  party  of  Jefferson,  a  Republican 
Governor — Benjamin  Williams — having  succeeded 
him.  Jefferson  would  never  have  made  such  a  blun 
der  in  his  appointments. 

What  share  Macon  had  in  the  exciting-  campaign 
of  1800  can  not  be  determined  exactly,  since  so  few 
records  exist  to  show  it.  That  he  was  the  leader 
of  the  Republicans  is  shown  by  his  correspondence 
with  Jefferson  during  the  following  spring.1  The 
President  gave  Macon  the  control  of  Federal  patron 
age  and  called  on  him  for  nominations  of  men  suit 
able  for  Federal  appointments  whether  there  were 
vacancies  or  not.  And  many  years  later  Jefferson 
refers  to  Macon  as  one  of  those  "old  Republicans" 
who  helped  him  save  the  country  in  1800.  Macon's" 
assistance  in  the  establishment  of  a  strong  Republi 
can  newspaper  shows,  too,  how  great  an  interest  he 
had  in  the  issues  at  stake. 

i  Macon  to  Jefferson,  April  20  and  27,  1801,  and  Jefferson  to  Macon, 
May  4,  1801. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  161 

The  presidential  electors  were  then  regularly 
chosen  in  North  Carolina  by  popular  vote  in  the 
districts  very  much  as  at  present.  In  view  of 
the  popularity  of  Jefferson  the  Federalist  Senate 
and  Governor  in  1798  attempted  to  change  the 
method  of  choosing  electors  so  that  they  should  be 
appointed  by  the  Houses  of  the  Assembly  in  joint 
session.  This  would  probably  have  given  Adams 
all  of  the  electors,  since  the  House  was  Republican 
by  so  small  a  majority;  or  if  not  all,  certainly  some 
of  the  body.  The  plan  was  clearb-  to  prevent  the 
will  of  the  majority  from  being  expressed.  The 
Federalists  had  the  example  of  Pennsylvania  before 
them.  There  the  Republicans  carried  the  State  by 
five  thousand  majority  in  the  fall  of  1799,  but  they 
failed  to  gain  control  of  the  Senate.  The  Senate 
refused  to  go  into  joint  session  with  the  Republican 
House  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  presidential  elec 
tors,  having  determined  to  prevent  the  vote  of  the 
State  from  being  cast  at  all.  The  House  insisting 
that  the  people  were  with  them  clamoured  for  a  joint 
session  until  it  became  evident  to  the  Senate  that 
persistency  in  their  policy  would  call  down  upon 
their  party  everlasting  infamy.  It  yielded  at  last, 
but  only  by  a  compromise  which  gave  Adams  seven 
votes  to  Jefferson's  eight,  which  was  a  neutraliza 
tion  of  Pennsylvania's  strength  with  the  exception 
of  one  vote — this,  too,  when  the  Governor  and  the 
House  and  a  decided  majority  of  the  people  were 
Republican.  The  same  state  of  affairs  existed  in 
Raleigh  after  Davie's  departure  for  France,  except 
the  law  changing  the  manner  of  selecting  electors 
had  not  passed  and  that  in  Davie's  stead  there  was  a 
Republican  Governor.  The  slight  Republican  major 
ity  in  the  House  defeated  the  new  election  law  and  so 

ii 


162  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

prevented  the  State  from  being  neutralized  at  least  to 
the  same  extent  that  Pennsylvania  had  been.1 

North  Carolina,  the  plan  of  "capturing-  the  legis 
lature"  failing,  became  the  scene  of  a  most  lively 
popular  excitement.  In  1796  there  had  been  but  a 
single  electoral  vote  cast  for  Adams,  that  of  the 
Fayeteville  district ;  but  since  that  time  a  great  Fed 
eralist  rally  had  taken  place;  in  1797  Archibald 
Henderson  "carried"  the  Salisbury  district  for  the 
Federalists;  in  1799  New  Hanover  and  adjoining 
counties  sent  an  Adams  man  to  Congress  and  at  the 
same  time  Joseph  Dickson,  of  Duplin,  prevailed  in 
a  similar  way  over  the  Republican  candidate.  So 
that  there  were  four  Federalists  in  the  National 
House  of  Representatives  at  the  time  Macon  was 
trying,  with  the  help  of  his  lively  editor,  Gales,  to 
"carry"  North  Carolina  for  the  Republicans.  His 
undertaking  was  not  an  easy  one.  Madison  wrote 
concerning  North  Carolina  on  December  29th, 
1799:  "But  it  is  impossible  to  calculate  the  progress 
of  delusion,  especially  in  a  State  where  it  is  said 
to  be  under  systematic  management,  and  where 
there  is  so  little,  either  of  system  or  of  exertion  to 
oppose  it;"2  and  Jefferson's  opinion  of  North  Car 
olina  politics,  August  nth,  1800,  was:  "The  state  of 
the  public  mind  in  North  Carolina  appears  mysteri 
ous  to  us."3  And  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
above  named  districts  were  for  years  to  come  faith 
ful  to  the  principles  of  Federalism;  Fayetteville 
and  Salisbury  districts  sent  Federalists  to  Congress 
as  long  as  there  was  a  Federalist  party  and  in  the 
latter  district  Archibald  Henderson  acquired  a  kind 
of  hereditary  claim  to  a  seat  in  Congress.  When 

1  Compare  Schouler,  I.,  492-493. 

2  Works,  II.,  152. 

3  Writings,  VII. ,  449- 


REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  163 

the  election  came  off,  the  Republicans  won  six  and 
the  Federalists  four  of  the  electoral  votes.1 

The  same  practice  of  "capturing  the  legislature" 
prevailed  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  In  Massachu 
setts,  where  there  were  two  or  three  Republican 
districts,  the  legislature  selected  all  sixteen  of  her 
electors  from  the  Federalists ;  in  New  York  a  worse 
than  Pennsylvania  scheme  would  have  succeeded 
but  for  Jay's  patriotism  and  Burr's  powers  of 
manipulation;  the  vote  of  New  Jersey,  another 
close  State,  was  given  entire  to  Adams.  South 
Carolina  was  divided  also,  and  Hamilton,  seeking  by 
a  shrewd  maneuver  to  get  Pinckney,  candidate  for 
Vice-Presidency,  into  the  President's  chair  over 
Adams,  the  regular  candidate,  advised  the  Federal 
ists  to  agree  to  a  swapping  of  candidates,  i.  e.,  to 
cast  their  eight  votes  for  Jefferson  and  Pinckney. 
But  Pinckney,  true  to  Adams  as  he  was,  refused  to 
cooperate  in  the  dishonorable  plan.  The  outcome  was 
that  the  State  voted  for  Jefferson  and  Burr,  the  reg 
ular  Republican  candidates.  Virginia,  North  Car 
olina,  and  Maryland  were  the  only  States  whose 
electors  were  chosen  by  popular  vote  in  districts. 
And  Maryland  being  evenly  divided  cast  six  votes 
for  Adams  and  six  for  Jefferson.  Virginia,  under 
the  control  of  Madison,  Monroe,  and  Jefferson  him 
self,  cast  all  her  votes  for  the  Republican  candi 
dates.2 

But  with  so  many  contingencies  in  the  choice  of 
electors  in  the  State  legislatures,  there  was  no  cer 
tainty  as  to  the  final  outcome  of  the  momentous 
campaign  until  late  in  December,  when  the  returns 
all  came  in,  and  so  the  politicians  were  busy  until 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  6th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1024 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  6lh  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1024. 


164  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

the  very  last  legislature  had  cast  its  vote.  The 
announcement  of  a  tie  between  Jefferson  and  Burr 
to  both  Houses  on  February  nth,  1801,  was  the  sig 
nal  for  the  beginning  of  a  second  campaign  of  Fed 
eralist  intrigue  against  the  will  of  the  majority 
plainly  expressed.  They  meant  to  use  Burr  as  an 
entering  wedge;  and  he  was  too  ambitious  not  to 
accept  the  Presidency  at  the  hands  of  his  political 
opponents,  could  they  but  bring  about  a  combina 
tion  which  would  secure  them  the  necessarv  major 
ity.  Burr  had  been  vilified  almost  as  much  as 
Jefferson  himself,  and  what  was  worse,  he  was 
believed  to  be  dishonorable.  The  Federalists  were 
ready  to  accept  him  in  the  hope  that,  owing  his  elec 
tion  to  them,  he  would  give  them  control  of  Fed 
eral  patronage.  The  best  commentary  on  the 
motives  of  the  Federalists  at  this  juncture  is  a  let- 
ter  from  their  leader,  James  A.  Bayard,  of  Dela 
ware,  to  Allen  McLane,  a  Federal  office  holder  in 
Wilmington,  Delaware:  "Mr.  Jefferson  is  our  Pres 
ident.  Our  opposition  was  continued  till  it  was 
demonstrated  that  Burr  would  not  be  brought  in, 
and  even  if  he  could,  he  meant  to  come  in  as  a  Demo 
crat.  In  such  case  to  evidence  his  sincerity  he 
must  have  swept  every  office  in  the  United  States. 
I  have  direct  information  that  Jefferson  will  not 
pursue  this  plan.  The  New  England  gentlemen 
came  out  and  declared  they  meant  to  go  without  a 
constitution  and  take  the  risk  of  civil  war.  They 
agreed  that  those  who  would  not  agree  to  incur  such 
an  extremity  ought  to  secede  without  loss  of  time. 
We  pressed  them  to  go  with  us  and  preserve  unity 
in  our  measures.  After  great  agitation  and  much 
heat  they  all  agreed  but  one.  But  in  consequence 
of  his  standing:  out  the  others  refused  to  abandon 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  165 

their  old  friend.  Mr.  Jay  did  not  eet  a  Federal 
vote.  Vermont  gave  a  vote  by  means  of  Morris' 
withdrawing.  The  same  thing  hanoened  with 
Maryland  and  the  votes  of  South  Carolina  and  Del 
aware  were  blank.  /  have  taken  good  care  of  you 
and  think  if  prudent  you  are  safe."**-  A  Virginia 
Federalist  wrote  some  of  his  constituents  for  advice 
whom  to  vote  for,  as  follows :  "With  resoect  to  the 
two  men  who  stand  before  us  for  the  Presidency, 
from  the  best  information  that  I  am  able  to  get,  in 
point  of  character  and  moral  principles  they  are 
pretty  equal ;  in  point  of  talents,  with  a  mind  fearless 
of  the  boldest  undertaking,  Burr  has  greatly  the 
superiority,  and  therefore  abundantly  the  most  dan 
gerous  *  *  *.  Not  being  able  to  make  up  my 
mind  as  to  which  would  be  best  I  shall  write  to  my 
friends  and  be  governed  by  their  opinions."2 

One  of  his  constituents  wrote  in  reply:  "Since  I 
have  seen  the  dangerous  doctrine  said  to  be  ad 
vanced  by  Jefferson,  I  am  induced  decidedlv  to  give 
the  preference  to  Mr.  Burr.  Jefferson  is  less  prob 
able  to  be  governed  by  generous  principles  than  Mr. 
Burr."  Colonel  Francis  Peyton,  one  of  his  most 
influential  constituents,  advised  him  to  support  Jef 
ferson,  since  the  election  of  the  latter  would  have 
the  effect  of  quieting  things  in  Virginia.  Thomas 
J.  Page,  of  the  same  district,  deplored  the  "dreadful 
alternative"  of  being  compelled  to  choose  between 
two  such  bad  characters:  "Burr's  character  is  sus 
picious  and  Jefferson  will  destroy  the  support  of 
our  commerce.  If  Jefferson  be  chosen,  not  the 

1  Bayard  to  Macl^ane,  February  17,  1801.    A  copy  of  this  letter  may  be 
found  in  the  Macon  MS3.  in  possession  of  Mrs.  W.  K.  Martin  of  Rich 
mond,  Va. 

2  Iveven  Powell,  London  County,  Va.,  to    Burr  Powell,  Jan.  12,  1801. 
The  lyeven  Powell  MSS.  are  in  possession  of  Miss  Rebecca  Powell,  Alex 
andria,  Va. 


166  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

smallest  vestige  of  our  navy  will  remain.  Yet  the 
people  of  our  section  all  prefer  him  to  Burr."1 

From  February  nth  to  February  i;th  this  last 
and  most  serious  struggle  between  the  opposing  sec 
tions  of  the  country  continued.  Every  means  of 
defeating  the  popular  will  was  resorted  to,  and  at 
one  stage  of  the  conflict  it  was  agreed  among  the 
Federalists  to  maintain  the  deadlock  in  the  House 
until  March  4th,  when  the  Adams  administration 
would  expire.  This  would  have  brought  the  gov 
ernment  to  an  end  and  they  counted  on  one  of  their 
own  party  to  take  the  reins  of  government  in  hand ; 
a  bill  passing  Congress  for  that  purpose,  which 
would  not  have  been  improbable,  since  both  houses 
were  controlled  by  Federalist  majorities.  In  case 
such  a  program  had  been  adopted,  Jefferson's  coun 
ter-plan  was  a  call  of  a  new  convention  of  States  to 
be  issued  by  the  new  Congress,  called  together  by 
himself  and  Burr,  the  two  candidates  nearest  the 
Presidency  by  the  late  election. 

The  intensest  excitement  prevailed  throughout  the 
country;  special  couriers  were  placed  along  the 
great  road  to  the  South  via  Alexandria,  Richmond, 
and  Weldon  to  carry  the  news  from  Washington. 
Caucuses  of  either  party  were  held  daily;  wild 
reports  were  constantly  circulating  to  the  effect  that 
Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  militia  were  about  to 
march  on  Washington  or  that  now  one,  now  another, 
of  the  leading  Federalists  was  about  to  make  a  coup 
d'etat.  In  Virginia  "the  violent  Dems,"  said  Col 
onel  Peyton  "are  determined  to  shoulder  their  mus 
kets  in  case  Jefferson  or  Burr  is  not  elected."  In 
North  Carolina  the  excitement  was  not  so  srreat  and 
no  threats  to  rise  in  arms  for  Jefferson,  so  far  as  can 
be  ascertained,  were  made. 

i  Branch  Historical  Papers,  I.,  57-62,  Randolph-Macon  College,  Va. 


REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  167 

Macon  voted  steadily  for  Jefferson  on  every  bal-' 
lot  while  four  of  his  colleagues,  Henderson,  Hill, 
Dickson,  and  Grove,  generally  voted  for  Burr.1  At 
the  end  of  the  thirty-sixth  ballot,  Macon  wrote  his 
friend  Bigelow  on  the  Roanoke : 

"The  House  of  Representatives  this  day  made  the 
36  ballot  for  President,  when  Jefferson  was  elected 
by  ten  states. 

"I  am,  Sir,  yr  most  obt  svt 

NATHL  MACON." 

Jefferson  accordingly  became  President  and  Burr 
Vice-President,  and  they  were  peaceably  inau 
gurated  on  the  4th  of  March  following  in  the  little 
city  of  Washington,  whence  the  government  had 
been  transferred  during  the  preceding  summer. 
The  few  remaining  days  of  the  session  after  the 
Presidential  election  brought  forward  nothing  new. 
Macon  was  present  to  the  last  to  witness  what  he 
had  so  long  wished  and  worked  for — the  inaugura 
tion  of  his  friend  Jefferson,  from  whom  he  expected 
everything  possible  in  the  way  of  good  government. 
And  after  witnessing  that  extremely  informal  event 
and  hearing  the  inaugural  address  with  some  dissat 
isfaction,  he  returned  to  his  beloved  Buck  Spring. 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  6th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  1032. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

REPUBLICAN  SUPREMACY,    l8oi-l8o5. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  semi-dis 
satisfaction  with  which  Macon  heard  some  of  the 
statements  of  Jefferson's  short  inaugural  address. 
Scarce  a  month  had  passed  before  we  find  him 
inquiring  of  Jefferson  directly  what  the  country 
might  expect.  April  20,  23,  and  again  May  i, 
Macon  wrote  concerning  this  subject.  From  Jef 
ferson's  reply1  we  learn  in  the  main  what  had  been 
Macon's  inquiries.  They  were:  What  about  the 
levees,  a  subject  of  some  concern  to  the  Southern 
republicans  generally;  How  will  communications 
from  the  President  to  Congress  be  made,  Will  the 
diplomatic  corps  be  reduced?  Can't  the  salaries  of 
Custom  House  officers  be  cut  down?  And  last, 
what  changes  do  you  propose  to  make  in  the  army 
and  navy  establishments?  Macon  took  the  policy 
of  his  party  seriously  and  meant  that  every  promise 
of  the  past  few  years  should  now  be  fulfilled,  and 
he  was  not  quite  sure  about  Jefferson's  purpose  now 
that  he  was  elected.  Another  subiect  seems  also  to 
have  been  discussed  in  Macon's  letters :  What  rules 
were  to  be  observed  in  the  appointments  of  the 
executive?  And  here  the  author  shows  himself  a 
partisan,  though  a  mild  one.  He  does  not  think 
men  who  had  assisted  the  British  in  the  Revolution 
should  be  permitted  to  hold  office  under  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States.  The  Federalists  had  been 
indifferent  to  this  subject  and,  as  will  appear  later, 

i  Jefferson's  Writings  (  Ford),  VII:  Betters  of  April  and  May,  passim. 


REPUBLICAN   SUPREMACY.  169 

they  had  appointed  men  to  office  who  had  actually 
borne  arms  against  America. 

On  May  14,  Jefferson  answered  all  Macon's 
inquiries:  "Levees  are  done  away;  communications 
to  Congress  will  be  by  message;  the  diplomatic 
corps  will  be  reduced  to  three  ministers;  the  army 
and  navy  will  undergo  a  chaste  reform ;  the  salaries 
of  Revenue  officers  depend  on  you — the  Representa 
tives.  We  shall  push  you  to  the  utmost  in  econ 
omy."  Nothing  more  could  have  been  desired,  and 
we  have  no  further  record  of  Macon's  fears  for 
some  time  to  come. 

As  to  appointments,  no  foreigner,  no  Revolution 
ary  Tory  was  to  be  given  employment.  And  in 
response  to  a  recommendation  Macon  had  made  in 
favor  of  the  appointment  of  Henry  Potter  as  district 
Judge  in  North  Carolina,  the  President  forwarded 
to  Macon  the  commission,1  asking  him  to  insist  upon 
Potter's  acceptance:  "Should  it  be  otherwise,"  he 
continued,  "you. must  recommend  some  other  good 
person.  I  had  rather  be  guided  by  your  opinion  than 
that  of  the  persons  you  referred  me  to  .  .  .  ;  let  me  re 
ceive  a  recommendation  from  you  as  quickly  as  pos 
sible,  and  in  all  cases  when  an  office  becomes  vacant 
in  your  state,  as  the  distance  would  occasion  a  great 
delay  were  you  to  wait  to  be  consulted.  I  shall  be 
much  obliged  to  you  to  recommend  the  best  charac 
ters.  There  is  nothing  I  am  so  anxious  about  as 
making  the  best  appointments."  The  policy  then  of 
the  administration  was  in  full  accord  with  Macon's 
with  regard  to  patronage,  and  what  must  have  been 
flattering  to  himself,  he  was  to  name  the  Federal 
officers  for  North  Carolina.  And  no  man  in  the 
state  would  have  been  more  likely  to  name  the  very 
best  men.  That  this  was  no  empty  compliment  of 

1  Macon  to  Jefferson,  May  24,  1801. 


170  NATHANIEL,    MACON. 

the  President  to  one  of  his  party  lieutenants  is 
shown  by  a  second  request  of  the  same  nature 
eighteen  months  later.1  Macon  succeeded  in  get 
ting  Potter  to  Become  United  States  Judge  and  wrote 
Jefferson,  May  24,  following :  "In  every  recommen 
dation  I  shall  carefully  endeavor  to  select  such  as 
can  discharge  the  duty  of  the  office,  and  have  been 
uniformly  democratic,  although  I  do  not  wish  any 
person  turned  out  of  office,  who  was  a  Whig  in  the 
Revolutionary  war,  for  any  opinions  he  may  now 
hold,  yet  I  would  not  recommend  one  for  office  who 
had  not  always  been  Republican."  To  illustrate 
how  careful  he  was  on  the  question  of  loyalty  dur 
ing  the  Revolution,  he  added  in  the  same^ letter:  "I 
have  been  informed  that  the  collector  at  Edenton 
was,  during  the  war,  a  New  York-Long  Island- 
Tory,  but  of  the  fact  I  have  not  sufficient  informa 
tion  to  speak  positively.  If  it  be  so,  ought  he  to  be 
continued  ?  The  fact,  I  suppose,  can  be  ascertained 
next  winter  in  Washington."  He  was  then  in 
earnest  about  this  part  of  his  policy,  and  who  among 
his  opponents  even  could  have  censured  him  for 
this? 

The  letter  concludes  with  the  following  infor 
mation  concerning  North  Carolina  politics  in  the 
spring  of  1801 :  "I  am  pretty  well  assured,  that  a 
systematic  opposition  may  be  expected.  It  was 
probably  organized  at  Washington  last  winter.  I 
have  been  a  good  deal  about  since  my  return,  and 
find  the  feds,  everywhere  trying  to  impress  their 
principles  on  the  people,  but  without  effect.  Gen 
eral  Davie  is  not  returned.  I  shall  endeavor  to  see 
him  as  soon  as  possible.  I  sincerely  hope  that  he 
may  be  willing  to  undertake  the  negotiation  with  the 
Indians.  Your  acquaintance,  Mr.  Willie  Jones,  is, 

1  October  18,  1802. 


REPUBLICAN  SUPREMACY.  171 

I  fear  not  long;  for  this  world.  He  is  unable  to 
walk,  and  there  is  no  probability  that  he  ever  will 
again."  These  few  lines  hint  clearly  at  the  policy 
of  Jefferson  as  respects  North  Carolina.  Davie,  on 
his  return  from  Paris,  was  to  be  offered  an  impor 
tant  commission.  This  was  for  the  purpose  of 
arranging  treaties  with  the  Indians  of  the  South 
west  and  incidentally  to  weaken  the  opposition  by 
gaining  its  most  powerful  leader.  Macon  was  in 
formed  of  the  plan  and  was  delegated  to  visit  Davie 
and  urge  him  to  accept.  About  the  same  time  Jef 
ferson  wrote  Benjamin  Hawkins,  an  ardent  Feder 
alist  who  had  lost  caste  in  North  Carolina  in  1796, 
asking  him  to  recommend  fit  persons  for  appoint 
ment  to  vacancies  in  North  Carolina.  The  same 
request  which  had  been  made  of  Macon  on  May  14. 
This  of  course  was  an  attempt  to  conciliate  another 
powerful  opposing  influence  in  the  South.  Hawkins 
was  won  and  he  was  continued  many  years  in  the 
lucrative  office  of  Indian  Commissioner  to  the  Creek 
nation.  Davie,  too,  accepted  office  under  the  new 
administration,  but  he  did  not  give  it  his  support. 
A  year  later1  Macon  saw  Davie  in  Raleigh  and  had 
some  conversation  with  him;  but  Davie  was  non 
committal.  Macon  was  active  during  the  summer 
of  1 80 1  in  finding  out  the  political  status  of  his 
State;  he  "went  much  among  the  people"  and 
reported  the  prevailing  sentiment.  It  was  a  touch 
ing  reference  he  makes  to  the  condition  of  his  old 
captain  of  years  gone  by,  Willie  Jones :  "I  fear  he  is 
not  long  for  this  world."  This  is  the  only  recorded 
reference  I  have  been  able  to  find  bearing  on  the 
final  end  of  that  extraordinary  man,  except  that  he 
died  about  this  time  in  Raleigh,  where  he  had  gone 
to  live,  and  was  buried  in  a  field  near  the  present 

i  Macon  to  Jeflerson,  June  17,  1802. 


172  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

site  of  the  St.  Augustine  school  for  negroes,  about  a 
mile  northeast  of  the  Capitol.  No  stone,  no  inscrip 
tion  marks  his  resting  place. 

Congress  assembled  promptly  that  December,  and 
on  the  first  day  of  their  session  and  on  the  first  ballot 
Nathaniel  Macon  was  elected  Speaker.  Schouler, 
in  his  history  of  the  United  States,  says  Macon 
"was  a  man  of  independent  views  and  upright  char 
acter,  of  frugal  tendencies  in  public  and  private, 
not  always  in  full  sympathy  with  his  party,  but  dif 
fering  dispassionately  when  he  differed  at  all ;  and 
so  constantly  re-elected,  as  in  later  years  to  be 
called  the  Father  of  the  House."1  These  charac 
teristics  were  in  the  main  the  cause  of  his  election 
to  the  speakership.  He  had  developed  in  Congress 
/more  of  the  character  of  a  iudee  than  of  a  party 
leader  and  a  wise  judge,  too,  and  as  has  been  noted 
in  a  former  chapter,  he  knew  the  history  of  the 
House,  its  precedents  in  all  important  measures; 
he  had  served  ten  years,  had  seldom  been  absent 
from  his  seat  and  had  taken  a  decided  stand  in  every 
debate  which  had  come  up  during-  those  years;  he 
had  done  good  work  on  various  committees  and 
had  but  once  in  his  ten  years  in  Congress  been 
called  to  order  by  the  Speaker ;  besides,  he  had  the 
confidence  of  the  President  and  consequently  the 
support  of  the  great  Virginia  delegation,  especially 
that  of  the  tall,  sallow  youth  from  up  the  Roanoke* 
John  Randolph.  On  the  following  day  the  new 
Speaker  appointed  young  Randolph  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means.  With  Jeffer 
son  as  President,  Macon  as  Speaker  of  the  House 
and  Randolph  at  the  head  of  the  most  important 
committee  in  Congress,  genuine  Republican  meas 
ures  and  manners  were  sure  to  have  the  right  of 

*  Schouler,  II.,  20. 


REPUBLICAN  SUPREMACY.  1Y3 

way  in  Washington;  and  the  Republican  political 
machine  was  in  fine  order,  well  oiled  and  ready  for 
the  fierce  onslaughts,  which  every  one  expected. 
One  head,  one  mind  dominated  that  Congress  and 
several  succeeding  ones,  and  for  the  time  being 
there  was  smooth  sailing  for  the  ship  of  state. 

Jefferson  recommended  in  his  message  just  what 
he  had  promised  Macon  on  May  14,  preceding — cut 
ting  down  of  expenditure  and,  what  was  not  prom 
ised  and  whajt  no  President  has  since  done,  he 
greatly  reduced  the  patronage  of  his  own  office ;  he 
dispersed  all  those  miserable  hangers-on  for  secret 
service  money,  and  soon,  with  the  help  of  his  able 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Albert  Gallatin,  he 
reduced  the  accounts  of  a  great  government  to  the 
simplicity  of  a  merchant's  account  books.  The 
first  Republican  president  set  the  fashionable  world, 
what  there  was  in  Washington,  to  guessing  what 
would  happen  next — no  levees,  no  restraint,  no  fash 
ionable  hours,  every  one  being  admitted  at  any  time 
to  the  President's  presence;  foreign  ambassadors 
having  no  special  claim  over  an  ordinary  American 
citizen !  First  one  party,  then  another  took  offense 
at  the  unceremonious  treatment  accorded  them,  but 
no  attention  was  given  them,  no  amends  made,  until 
finally  men  came  to  realize  that  it  was  indeed  a 
Republican  government,  planted  there  in  the  woods 
on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and  no  hybrid  mon 
archy  with  a  court  of  country  snobs.  Macon  en 
joyed  such  an  atmosphere  and  he  talked  of  his 
"mess"  with  as  much  self-satisfaction  as  if  it  had 
been  the  most  fashionable  twentieth  century  hotel. 
He  lived  with  Randolph  and  Joseph  H.  Nicholson 
in  a  small  house  near  the  present  Treasury  depart 
ment  in  about  such  style  as  a  college  boy  with  small 
means  now  lives,  and  when  a  friend  or  constituent 


174  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

visited  him,  he  never  thought  it  inconvenient  to 
share  his  bed  with  the  visitor.  He  came  to  con 
gress  on  horseback,  kept  the  horse  close  by  his 
"mess,"  and  during  the  intervals  of  the  sessions  of 
Congress  he  was  often  in  the  saddle  going  about 
the  "City  of  magnificent  distances,"  or  riding  far 
out  the  old  Georgetown  turnpike.  His  friend  Ran 
dolph,  however,  came  to  Washington  in  a  "coach 
and  four"  bringing  his  fox  hounds,  and  it  was  not 
unusual,  we  are  told,  to  see  him  enter  the  House  of 
Representatives  with  a  pair  of  dogs  at  his  heels. 
It  was  a  part  of  the  plantation  life  of  the  Roanoke 
valley  that  these  two  men  brought  into  the  little 
Capital  when  they  came,  and  carried  away  with 
them  when  they  went.  The  two  were  often  seen 
together,  Macon,  now  forty-three  years  old,  a  tall, 
well-proportioned,  healthy  physique;  Randolph, 
only  twenty-eight,  slender,  delicate-looking,  sallow- 
complexioned,  with  the  promise  of  scarce  another 
decade  of  life.  But  both  were  gentlemen,  gentle- 
born,  and  Virginian  in  sentiment.  They  seldom 
disagreed,  never  during  these  brighter  years  of 
their  lives.  They  were  determined  to  give  this 
country  such  a  government  as  had  never  been  seen 
any  where,  a  government  as  simply  conducted  as  a 
country  debating  society. 

The  Federalists  were  making  sport  among  them 
selves  of  this  rustic  regime  from  the  South,  the 
more  than  Roman  virtue  in  public  places.  But  it 
was  all  too  serious  a  business  to  be  laughed  down. 
When  Jefferson's  retrenchment  measures  reducing 
the  running  expenses  of  the  government  from 
7,500,000  to  3,500,000  dollars  a  year  came  up,  they 
declared  it  "imposible,"  made  a  strong  fight  against 
it,  but  were  quieted  by  sheer  numbers  in  the  voting. 
It  was  on  the  repeal  of  the  Judiciary  bill  that  they 


REPUBLICAN    SUPREMACY.  175 

made  their  last  determined  stand.  The  Republi 
cans  had  opposed  from  the  beginning  the  extension 
of  the  Judiciary,  but  to  no  avail.  A  cumbrous  sys 
tem  had  been  devised  by  Hamilton  in  1799,  submit 
ted  to  Congress  in  the  latter  part  of  the  session  of 
1801,  and  became  a  law  a  short  time  before  Adams' 
term  of  office  expired.  The  Federalists  had  made 
themselves  berths  against  the  day  of  defeat,  and 
Adams  was  accommodating  enough  to  help  them 
all  into  these  berths  during  his  last  days  in  Wash 
ington.  The  Republicans  began  early  in  the  next 
session,  in  an  unmerciful  way,  not  to  molest  their 
opponents  in  their  ease  merely,  but  to  break  up  the 
very  foundations  of  it  by  abolishing  all  the  new 
courts.  John  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  brought 
the  dire  resolution  into  the  Senate  January  6,  1802, 
and  in  a  few  days  it  passed ;  then  the  House  took  it 
up  and  passed  it  by  a  vote  of  59  to  32  !  The  lawyers 
of  the  large  cities  made  a  blustering  opposition  and 
a  meeting  of  the  NewT  York  bar  resolved  solemnly 
that  if  the  bill  before  Congress  should  pass  "this 
Union  will  at  once  crumble  to  pieces."  Bayard  did 
all  that  eloquence  could  do  against  a  determined 
majority,  i.  e.,  he  predicted  that  all  the  direful  calam 
ities  known  to  ancient  Egypt  would  befall  the  coun 
try  if  the  Republicans  persisted  in  their  perverse 
legislation.  Randolph  replied :  "  It  is  not  on 
account  of  the  paltry  expense  that  I  wish  to  see  it 
frhe  new  judiciary)  put  down,  but  to  give  the 
death-blow  to  the  pretension  of  rendering  the  judi 
ciary  a  hospital  for  decayed  politicians."  After  the 
bill  had  passed,  the  House  re-arranged  the  United 
States  courts,  greatly  reducing  the  number  of  office 
holders,  on  a  plan  which  served  the  purposes  of 
judicial  administration  until  after  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War. 


170  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

While  these  measures  were  taking  place  in  Con 
gress  the  apportionment  of  Representatives  was 
made  the  subject  of  a  short  debate.  In  this  debate 
Randolph  advanced  a  theory  which  was  henceforth 
to  become  the  text  of  his  and  Macon's  political  lives, 
and  which  was  ultimately  to  end  with  William 
Lowndes  Yancey  and  Civil  Wrar.  It  was  this :  "The 
members  of  this  House  are  not  the  representatives  of 
the  people  over  the  United  States,"  (not  people  of 
the  United  States ;  Randolph  believed  there  were 
none  such)  "but  the  representatives  of  the  people  of 
the  individual  States  in  their  sovereign  State  capaci 
ties.  "  Bayard  took  Randolph  to  task  and  expressed 
the  opinion  that  he  was  as  much  a  representative  of 
Virginia  as  Randolph  himself.  This  was  Federal- 
ism's  extreme  claim.  As  to  the  subject  of  the  ratio 
of  members  the  positions  taken  by  both  political  par 
ties  was  exactly  the  reverse  of  their  positions  in 
1791  :  the  Federalists  had  then  favored  a  small 
House  of  Representatives,  now  they  advocated  a 
large  one;  the  Republicans  had  said  in  1791  that  the 
salvation  of  the  country  depended  on  a  large  House, 
now  they  were  equally  sure  of  a  disaster  from  a  large 
one.  Macon's  first  service  in  Congress  had  been 
connected  with  this  subject,  and  he  then  held  opin 
ions  contrary  to  his  party;  likewise  in  1802  he  dif 
fered  from  its  leaders,  even  with  his  friend  Ran 
dolph,  except  in  the  matter  of  State's  individuality. 
As  to  the  representation,  he  declared  he  would  like 
a  ratio  so  small  that  every  man  might  know7  person 
ally  his  representative  in  Congress.1 
(  After  the  passing  of  the  retrenchment  and  reform 
rneasures  both  Republican  and  Federalist  members 
of  Congress  began  to  sound  public  opinion.  Th° 
work  of  undoing  Federalist  legislation  of  which  the 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  ?th  Cong.,  i  Sess.,  365-373. 


THE;  REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  177 

new  Administration  disapproved  was  begun  and 
completed  in  one  session  and  by  May  3,  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress  were  returning  to  their  constitu 
ents.  The  Administration  and  the  general  politics 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  have  been  said  to  have  been 
merely  destructive — his  life  was  successful  only  as 
that  of  an  obstructionist  and  his  politics  were  bene 
ficial  only  in  the  sense  of  correcting  abuses.  In  a 
single  session  he  cleared  the  way  for  progressive, 
positive  measures,  fulfilled  all  the  promises  his 
party  had  made  to  the  people  and  was  ready  to  put 
into  effect  the  first  of  his  own  plans  of  expansion— 
the  most  important  step  in  our  history  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  But  before 
we  take  up  the  study  of  Jefferson's  politics,  let  us 
see  how  North  Carolina  was  viewing  the  new 
regime,  how  it  regarded  the  new  President  and  his 
reforms. 

Macon  wrote  Jefferson  within  a  month1  after  his 
return  to  Buck  Spring:  "Believing  that  it  will  not 
be  disagreeable  to  you  to  hear  the  sentiments  of  the 
people  in  different  parts  of  the  Union,  and  having 
since  my  return  been  in  three  of  the  adjoining  coun 
ties  I  with  real  pleasure  inform  you  that  all  (except 
those  who  were  not  expected  to  be  pleased)  seem 
to  be  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  those, 
to  whom  they  have  entrusted  the  management  of 
their  public  affairs.  Some  who  before  the  electoral 
elections  appeared  to  be  almost  indifferent  as  to  the 
elector  have  declared  their  sincere  approbation  of 
the  choice  and  their  joy  that  the  late  election  gave 
birth  to  an  administration  which  deserves  the  "sup 
port  of  every  American."  In  Raleigh  things  were  • 
going  well,  he  thought;  and  let  us  hope  he  called  to 
see  his  friend  Gales,  the  editor.  Davie  was  not 

1  Macon  to  Jefferson,  June  17,  1802. 
12 


178  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ready  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Jefferson  party  as  it 
seems  from  Macon's  account  of  an  interview.  Davie 
was  in  reality  preparing  "to  stand  for  Congress" 
against  Willis  Alston  of  Halifax,  and  rumors  to  that 
effect  were  already  rife  about  Washington.  Macon 
closes  his  letter  by  saying:  "The  only  hope  of  the 
dissatisfied  is  to  produce  a  division  among  the 
Republicans,  of  which  I  hope  there  is  no  danger. 
I  also  hope  none  of  them  want  offices,  office  hunters 
are  never  to  be  satisfied." 

The  plan  of  producing  "a  division  among  the 
Republicans"  was  soon  a  principal  part  of  the  Feder 
alist  program.  In  September,  1802,  Duncan  Cam 
eron,  Federalist  of  Hillsboro,  wrote  John  Moore, 
Revolutionary  Tory  of  Lincoln  county,  a  long  let 
ter  outlining  the  scheme  of  rehabilitating  the  party 
in  the  State.  He  says  in  the  beginning,  "The  politi 
cal  opinions  of  a  great  portion  of  our  citizens1  seem 
to  me  to  grow  out  of  hatred  and  party  principles. 
They  are  in  the  habit  of  reading — Duane's  and 
Gales'  papers,"  and  Gales  was,  like  Duane,  sending 
out  papers  free,  or  nearly  so,  to  all  parts  of  the 
State.  "It  was  proposed  at  this  place  some  weeks 
ago  that  a  subscription  should  be  set  on  foot  in  each 
district  to  raise  money  sufficient  to  furnish  about 
ten  newspapers  for  each  county,  which  should  be 
sent  to  men  of  democratic  principles  of  a  moderate 
kind  by  the  printer.  Mr.  Boylan  has  said  that  he 
will  furnish  600  papers  weekly  at  $1.25  each  for  a 
year  (the  subscription  rate  was  then  $3.00  a  year), 
which  is  as  low  as  the  price  of  labor  and  paper  would 
enable  him  to  print  them.  This  scheme  it  was  fur 
ther  agreed  shall  be  communicated  to  the  following 
persons :  William  Boylan  for  Newbern,  W.  B. 
, Grove  for  Fayetteville,  Col.  Ashe  for  Wilmington, 

*  The  Nathaniel  Macon  MSS. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  179 

John  Moore  for  Morgan,  Archibald  Henderson  for 
Salisbury,  D.  Cameron  for  Hillsboro,  W.  R.  Davie 
for  Halifax,  who  was  also  to  select  some  person  for 
Edenton.  Col.  Ashe  has  already  procured  sub 
scriptions  for  the  Wilmington  district.  From  what 
I  have  already  understood  to  be  your  political  char 
acter  with  perfect  confidence  in  your  zealous  coope 
ration  with  us  in  executing  a  plan  which  has  for  its 
end  the  noble  objects  of  suppressing  falsehood  and 
disseminating  truth,  of  subverting  the  wild  and  vis 
ionary  projects  and  opinions  of  Democracy  and 
advocatng  in  their  place  sound,  substantial,  practical 
principles  of  Federalism."  In  Hillsboro  seventy- 
five  dollars  was  at  once  subscribed  and  Cameron  was 
sure  that  there  would  be.  no  difficulty  in  finding  men 
in  every  town  and  county  to  come  forward  with  sub 
scriptions.  Five  dollars  each  was  the  assessment. 
This  plan  was  a  result  of  a  conference  of  leading 
Federalists  held  at  Hillsboro,  but  it  had  been  first 
suggested  and  outlined  in  Raleigh  during  the  June 
session  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  the  same 
that  Macon  had  attended  in  order  to  find  out  what 
was  the  public  opinion  of  Jefferson  and  the  Repub 
lican  administration.  Boylan,  the  editor  of  the  Ral 
eigh  Minerva,  was  its  originator.  But  the  idea  and 
practice,  too,  had  been  started  already  in  North  Car 
olina  by  Joseph  Gales.  The  Raleigh  Register  had 
come  to  be  feared  and  the  maneuvers  of  its  editor 
were  now  to  be  imitated  by  the  opposing  party. 

Macon  knew  in  a  vague  way  that  something  was 
being  proposed;  rumors  of  it  reached  him  at  Ral 
eigh.  But  he  seems  not  to  have  been  disturbed. 
He  wrote  at  this  very  time  (September  15,  1802)  to 
one  of  the  Federalists — John  Steele  of  Salisbury — 
asking  him  to  bring  his  whole  family  to  Buck 
Spring  and  remain  a  week.  Macon  sustained  a 


180  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

peculiar  relation  to  the  leading  Federalists  during 
all  these  years.  He  wrote  to  them,  appeared  to  be 
on  the  friendliest  terms  with  them  and  never  mani 
fested  any  £>arty  animosity.  Steele  was,  however, 
a  mild  Federalist  and  one  whom  both  Jefferson  and 
Macon  were  anxious  to  win  for  their  party.  After 
his  defeat  for  Congress  in  1^95,  he  had  been  ap 
pointed  by  Washington  as  Comptroller  of  the 
Treasury,  which  office  he  held  under  Adams  and 
Jefferson  until  late  in  the  fall  of  1802.  Steele's 
feeling  a!t  this  time  may  be  best  illustrated  by  a 
quotation  from  a  note  on  one  of  Macon's  letters 
dated  September  15,  1802:  "It  is  my  ambition  to  be 
useful,  but  I  am  aware  that  a  man  can  not  be  really 
so  without  possessing  a  share  of  political  power 
and  patronage  which  I  have  no  reason  to  expect"- 
a  remark  sad  enough  for  a  politician  of  that  time, 
yet  one  which  showed  its  author  to  have  under 
stood  well  the  trend  of  political  thought  in  North 
Carolina  in  1802.  Steele  was  wealthy,  had  dis 
tinguished  himself  in  war  and,  feeling  as  he  did 
about  the  outlook  of  his  party,  he  informed  the  Presi 
dent  that  he  should  resign  his  position  and  retire  to 
private  life  on  his  farm.  Macon  heard  of  the  pro 
posed  step  and  wrote  Steele,  October  10,  urging 
him,  though  not  successfully,  to  remain  at  his  post. 
In  this  letter  Macon's  confidence  in  and  friendship 
for  Steele  are  clearly  shown — different  now  from 
what  he  was  when  Steele  desired  Macon's  endorse 
ment  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1794.  Jeffer 
son  also  insisted  on  Steele's  remaining  in  office  at 
Washington,  but  to  no  avail.  He  entered  the  North 
Carolina  Assembly  and  was  made  commissioner  for 
the  settling  of  the  long-disputed  boundary  line 
between  North  and  South  Carolina,  but  never  again 
figured  in  national  affairs. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF   l8oO.  1ST 

General  Davie,  the  other  object  of  Jefferson's 
friendly  offices,  was  not  detached  from  the  Federal 
ist  party  and,  contrary  to  Macon's  hopes  for  his 
finally  yielding  his  support  or  remaining  in  quiet 
retirement,  he  joined  the  active  opponents  of  the 
President,  even  while  holding  a  commission  under 
the  Administration,  and  "stood  for  Congress"  in  the 
summer  of  1803  against  Willis  Alston,  a  staunch 
Democrat  of  Halifax.  Concerning  the  partisanship 
of  that  campaign  Macon  wrote:  "I  am  informed 
that  Jaycocks  has  ceased  being  a  candidate,  so  that 
Alston  and  Davie  seem  to  be  alone.  I  have  also  been 
informed  that  great  exertions  have  been  made,  and 
will  be  continued  till  the  election,  which  is  next 
Thursday  and  Friday.  In  other  districts  conditions 
remain  as  in  my  last."1  It  was  a  notorious  con 
test,  and  it  is  still  talked  about  in  Halifax ;  but 
Davie  was  defeated.  Chagrined  at  his  defeat,  and 
being  separated  from  the  powerful  Jones  family  by 
the  death  of  his  wife,  he  retired  not  only  from 
politics,  but  from  the  State,  never  to  return  again. 
He  spent  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  at  Tivoli 
on  the  Catawba  river  in  South  Carolina,  near  the 
scenes  of  his  valiant  fighting  during  the  Revolution. 

The  newspaper  plans  of  Duncan  Cameron  and 
others ;  the  "hue  and  cry"  as  Macon  says,  raised  in 
defense  of  the  Constitution,  which  was  so  endan 
gered;  the  retirement  from  tacit  support  of  Jeffer 
son  of  Gen.  John  Steele,  and  the  violent  campaign 
in  favor  of  so  prominent  a  man  as  General  Davie,  all 
came  to  naught  in  1803.  Every  man  in  Congress 
from  North  Carolina  who  voted  against  the  repeal 
of  the  Judiciary  act  in  1802  was  defeated  in  the 
election  of  1803.  Henderson,  Stanly,  Hill,  and 
even  Grove  of  Fayetteville,  were  all  superceded. 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  August 6,  1803. 


182  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

/ 

As  Macon  said  so  many  times  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  and  elsewhere,  the  people  were  behind  the 
Republicans.  Jefferson  was  endorsed  almost  unani 
mously  and  Macon  with  him.  From  this  time  until 
his  voluntary  retirement  in  1828,  Macon  was  easily 
the  foremost  figure  in  North  Carolina  politics.  He 
wrote  Jefferson  nearly  a  month  after  the  August 
elections  concerning  the  political  situation  in  his 
State  as  follows  i1  "It  is  with  real  pleasure,  that  I 
inform  you,  that  the  Republican  cause  is  daily  gain 
ing  ground  with  us.  ,-  Not  only  the  late  elections,  but 
the  candid  acknowledgment  of  many  that  they  have 
been  deceived,  fully  confirm  the  fact.  And  this 
gaining  is  clearly  the  effect  of  observation  on  the 
difference  between  the  present  and  past  times  by  the 
people,  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  district 
(Fayetteville)  which  sends  only  Federalists  from  the 
State  to  Congress,  gave  a  majority  of  votes  to 
Republican  candidates,  and  I  must  add  what  is  also 
worthy  of  notice,  that  during  the  present  adminis 
tration,  not  a  single  person  has  been  dismissed  from 
office  in  this  State,  although  with  one  exception  I 
believe  they  were  all  Federal,  though  not  I  hope  of 
the  same  sort  which  abound  in  some  other  places." 
Meanwhile  Jefferson  had  been  pursuing  steadily 
his  policy  of  annexing  Louisiana,  a  country  toward 
which  he  had  been  looking  with  jealous  eyes  ever 
since  1790.  The  story  of  Monroe's  second  mission 
to  Paris  and  Napoleon's  final  policy  in  the  Louis 
iana  purchase  has  been  too  often  told  to  require  any 
very  extended  review  here.  This  positive  policy  of 
the  President  was  first  intimated  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  Randolph's  call  for  information 
from  the  Executive  on  December  17,  1802.  All  the 
information  at  the  disposal  of  the  Administration 
was  gladly  furnished.  The  Federalists  at  once 

i  Macon  to  Jefferson,  September  3,  1803. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  183 

returned  to  their  old  cry  of  war  against  France,  and 
Hamilton  declared  that  a  sensible  President  would 
recommend  at  once  the  annexation  of  all  the  land 
east  of  the  Mississippi  without  negotiation  either 
with  France  or  Spain.  The  opposition  failed  to 
force  a  rupture  while  the  Republicans  authorized 
the  Administration  to  call  out  good  militia  and  equip 
fifteen  vessels  of  war.  Jefferson,  however,  turned 
to  his  old  friend  Monroe,  the  popular  Governor  of 
Virginia,  a  favorite  of  the  Kentuckians,  and  insisted 
on  his  undertaking  the  negotiation  of  the  purchase  of 
the  disputed  territory.  Monroe  accepted  the  mis 
sion,  and  Louisiana  was  secured  for  the  compara 
tively  inconsiderable  sum  of  fifteen  million  dollars. 
But  the  end  had  not  come — Congress  had  not  been 
consulted,  and  it  would  rest  with  it  whether  or  not 
the  action  of  the  Executive  would  be  sustained. 

While  Monroe  was  working  out  his  mission  in 
Paris,  with  the  assistance  of  Livingston,  the  regular 
representative — rather  while  he  was  assisting  Liv 
ingston — at  the  court  of  the  First  Consul,  a  most 
interesting  and  important  constitutional  question 
was  agitating  the  minds  of  Congress  and  of  thought 
ful  men  everywhere.  The  Marbury  vs.  Madison 
decision  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  was  the  cause, 
and  it  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  tendency  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Marbury  was  one  of  Adams'  "mid 
night"  appointees ;  and  Madison  refused  to  give 
him  the  commission  which  the  appointment  required. 
Marbury  was  to  have  been  a  Justice  of  the  Peace 
for  the  District  of  Columbia.  He  instituted  suit 
against  Madison  as  Secretary  of  State  and  obtained 
Marshall's  judgment  that  "to  withhold  his  commis 
sion  is  an  act  deemed  by  the  court  not  warranted  by 
law,  but  violative  of  a  legal  vested  right."1  The  ses- 

""  T  Foundation  stone  for  the  decision  of  Judge  Ruffin,  so  famous  in 
North  Carolina,  in  the  case  of  Hoke  vs.  Henderson. 


184  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

sionsof  the  Supreme  Court  had  been  suspended  some 
time  by  act  of  Congress.  This  decision  was  a  retort 
which  did  not  please  the  majority.  It  was  the 
first  manifestation  of  that  spirit  of  Marshall  which 
was  soon  to  dominate  the  Supreme  Court  and  finally 
to  become  the  directing  element  in  the  whole  Ameri 
can  Judiciary.  Men  now  for  the  first  time  began 
seriously  to  inquire  whether  the  Constitution  gave 
to  the  Supreme  Court  the  authority  to  declare  void 
the  acts  of  Congress,  not  because  no  provision  was 
made  for  such  rulings  on  the  part  of  the  Court,  but 
because  men  had  not  accustomed  themselves  to  sub 
mitting  to  an  all-powerful  Court.  The  Federalists 
rejoiced  that  such  a  man  as  Marshall  had  been 
placed  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  The  Republicans 
prepared  to  silence  them  by  impeaching  John  Pick 
ering  for  maladministration  of  his  office.  Pickering 
was  Federalist  Judge  of  the  United  States  District 
Court  of  New  Hampshire.  Articles  of  impeachment 
were  brought  before  the  Senate  on  the  last  day  of 
the  session,  March  3,  1803 — beginning  of  a  bad 
business  for  the  party  in  power. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1803,  Macon 
corresponded  with  his  friends  on  the  subject  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  judges,  their  duties 
and  their  relations  to  the  other  branches  of  the 
National  government.  Steele  wrote  Macon  denying 
the  right  of  Marshall  to  issue  the  mandamus  in 
favor  of  Marbury,  and  attacking  the  "fashionable 
doctrine  that  the  courts  have  power  to  pronounce 
acts  of  Congress  unconstitutional  and  void."  He 
then  insinuates  that  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  was 
the  author  of  Marshall's  decision.  "By  the  theory 
of  our  Government,  the  Legislative,  the  Executive 
and  Judicial  departments  are  in  a  certain  degree  and 
for  certain  purposes  distinct.  The  officers  who  com- 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF   l8oO.  185 

pose  the  President's  council  are  his  constitutional 
advisers,  and  with  him  form  what  is  denominated 
the  Executive.  Should  the  Secretary  of  State,  a 
constituent  part  of  this  great  department,  do  wrong 
in  his  official  capacity  to  an  individual  or  the  public, 
with  or  without  the  sanction  of  the  President,  the 
intimate  relation  which  the  Constitution  supposes 
to  exist  between  him  and  the  President  may  be  dis 
solved  by  removal  or  impeachment,  after  which  he 
is  amenable  to  the  judicial  authority  in  the  form  of 
an  indictment,  and  perhaps  by  civil  process.  Until 
that  connection  be  dissolved,  the  official  acts  of  a 
Secretary  of  State  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  acts  of 
the  President.  With  respect  to  them  he  stands  on 
the  Executive  ground  not  examinable  by  the  Judi 
ciary."  And  further,  "I  doubt  the  right  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  to  step  on  Executive  ground  in  the 
case  of  a  patent  on  a  pension;  (if  so)  you  will  sub 
ject  at  once  the  country  to  Judicial  discipline  and 
all  the  vast  concerns  of  the  treasury  to  the  revision 
of  a  department  which,  in  theory,  is  the  third,  but  in 
practice  aims  at  becoming  the  first  power  of  the 
State."  In  this  way  a  staunch  Federalist  argues 
that  the  Supreme  Court  had  no  right  to  give  a 
decision  in  the  Marbury  vs.  Madison  case.  After 
citing  precedents  in  English  judicial  practice,  which 
Macon  did  not  relish,  to  be  sure,  and  again  in  the 
Pennsylvania  controversy  between  Governor  Mc- 
Kean  and  the  Adjutant-General,  he  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Supreme  Court  was  quietly 
usurping  powers  not  given  it.  He  does  not  agree 
that  it  may  annul  a  law  of  Congress  constitutionally, 
but  asserts  that  Congress  is  supreme  and  is  not  to 
be  dominated  by  the  Court.  Macon,  as  we  have 
seen,  repeatedly  referred  to  the  Court  as  supreme, 
and  in  the  case  of  the  Sedition  laws,  he  called  upon 


186  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

the  Judges  to  declare  the  act  of  Congress  unconstitu 
tional.  It  was  not  thus  so  much  the  Court  itself  to 
which  men  were  objecting,  but  its  evidently  partisan 
attitude  towards  the  Administration.  In  the  case  of 
Marbury  vs.  Madison,  Marshall  finally  decided  that 
the  ruling  of  the  Court  could  not  apply,  and  that  the 
mandamus  which  he  himself  had  granted  could  not 
be  enforced.  Macon  declared  this  behaviour  re 
minded  him  of  a  certain  member  of  Congress,  who 
always  spoke  on  one  side  of  a  question  and  voted  on 
the  other.  Macon  was  willing  to  grant  the  suprem 
acy  of  the  Court  over  Congress,  but  he  said  the 
Judges  would  always  decide  a  constitutional  ques 
tion  at  their  peril,  because  of  their  accountability  to 
Congress.  Marshall's  early  constructive  rulings 
were  not  approved  by  Macon ;  they  were  to  him  par 
tisan,  and  viewed  in  the  light  of  unbiased  history, 
he  was  correct.  Their  aim  was  to  carry  into  effect 
political  opinions  held  and  maintained  by  a  small 
minority  of  the  people.  John  Marshall  had  not 
then  been  canonized,  and  so  his  decisions  were  not 
received  as  dicta  of  heaven-born  justice. 

The  position  of  the  Court  encouraged  the  Repub 
licans  in  their  determination  to  administer  a  whole 
some  chastisement.  The  Administration,  in  accord 
ance  with  public  sentiment,  recommended  the  im 
peachment  of  Judge  Chase,  the  most  violently  parti 
san  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Chase 
deserved  impeachment,  it  was  thought,  especially  on 
the  grounds  of  his  behaviour  on  the  Bench  in  Rich 
mond  in  the  Callender  trial  in  1800.  And  adding 
to  the  exasperation  of  the  Republicans,  Chase,  in  a 
charge  to  a  grand  jury,  declared:  "The  indepen 
dence  of  the  National  judiciary  is  already  shaken 
to  its  foundations,  and  the  virtue  of  the  people 
alone  can  restore  it.  *  *  *  Our  republican  Con- 


THE;  REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  187 

stitution  will  sink  into  a  mobocracy,  *  *  *  the 
worst  of  all  possible  government."1  This  was  "pour 
ing  oil  into  the  flames"  indeed.  The  leaders  of  the 
House,  on  Jefferson's  advice,  determined  long  before 
Congress  met  on  impeaching  Chase  at  the  next  ses 
sion.  Those  leaders  were  Macon,  Randolph  and 
Jos.  H.  Nicholson,  of  Maryland.  But  Macon  wrote ; 
to  Nicholson,  August  6,  1803:  "I  have  thought  a 
little  on  Judge  Chase's  charge,  and  submit  for  your 
consideration  the  following  queries : 

"i.  Ought  a  Judge  to  be  impeached  for  a  charge 
to  a  grand  jury  because  it  contains  matters  of  which 
the  grand  jury  have  not  cognizance? 

"2.  Ought  a  Judge  to  be  impeached  for  a  charge 
to  a  grand  jury,  not  legal  but  political? 

"3.  Ought  a  Judge  to  be  impeached  for  deliver 
ing  in  his  charge  to  the  grand  jury,  political  opin 
ions  which  every  man  may  fully  enjoy  arid  freely 
express  ? 

"4.  Ought  a  Judge  to  be  impeached  for  delivering 
his  political  opinions  in  a  charge  to  the  grand  jury, 
and  which  any  member  of  Congress  might  deliver 
to  the  House  of  which  he  is  a  member  ? 

"5.  Ought  a  Judge  to  be  impeached  because  he 
avows  monarchical  opinions  in  his  charge  to  a 
grand  jury? 

"Is  error  of  opinion  to  be  dreaded  when  inquiry 
is  free?  Is  the  liberty  of  the  press  of  any  real  value 
when  the  political  charges  of  a  Judge  are  dreaded? 
What  effect  have  they  (judicio-political  charges)  in 
the  United  States?  If  a  Judge  ought  to  be  im 
peached  for  avowing  monarchical  principles  to  the 
grand  jury  in  his  charge,  what  ought  to  be  done 
with  those  who  appoint  them,  who  actually  sup 
ported  them  in  the  field.  Change  the  scene,  and 

1  Hart :  Formation  of  the  Union,  180. 


188  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

suppose  Chase  had  stretched  as  far  on  the  other 
side,  and  had  praised  where  no  praise  was  deserving, 
would  it  be  proper  to  impeach,  because  by  such  con- 

-  duct  he  might  lull  the  people  to  sleep  while  their 
interest  was  destroyed?     I  have  said  this  much  to 

.  hear  your  opinions  on  some  of  the  points,  nor  can 
I  quite  withhold  expressing  to  you  my  firm  convic 
tion  that  you,  if  any  attempt  be  made  to  impeach, 
ought  not  to  be  the  leader."  Nicholson  desired  the 
appointment  on  the  bench  in  case  Chase  was  con 
victed  and  removed,  which  explains  Macon's  last 
sentence.  The  plan  was  preparing  and  the  leaders 
already  thinking  about  the  division  of  the  spoils. 
From  the  tenor  of  Macon's  letter,  he  opposed  the 
r  impeachment  of  Chase,  and  this  course  would  have 
been  a  much  wiser  policy  for  his  party.  Randolph, 
it  appears,  was  bent  on  impeachment,  and  favored 
Nicholson's  being  named  Chase's  successor.  But  ere 
this  unfortunate  scheme  comes  before  Congress,  let 
us  view  the  better  and  nobler  work  of  the  party  in 
power. 

Macon's  letter  of  August  6,  shows  his  ignorance 
of  the  favorable  turn  of  the  negotiations  at  Paris  on 
June  24,  but  in  September  he  informs  Jefferson  that 
"the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  has  given  general  sat 
isfaction,  though  the  terms  are  not  correctly  known. 
But  if  it  is  within  the  compass  of  the  present  rev 
enue,  the  purchase,  when  the  terms  are  known,  will 
be  more  admired  than  even  now."  And  then  add 
ing  what  must  have  given  his  correspondent  genuine 
satisfaction,  and  which  indicates  Macon's  own 
statesman-like  vision,  "if  the  Floridas  can  be  ob 
tained  on  tolerable  terms,  we  [shall]  have  nothing 
to  make  us  uneasy,  unless  it  be  the  party  madness  of 
some  of  our  dissatisfied  citizens."  This,  then,  is 
the  policy  of  him  who  had  opposed  every  warlike 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  189 

measure  the  Federalists  had  formerly  followed  and 
would  have  carried  out  in  order  to  gain  the  Floridas. 
He  would  obtain  all  that  they  coveted;  and,  with 
his  beau  ideal  in  the  President's  chair,  he  actually 
hoped  and  expected  to  acquire  all  the  country  needed 
for  its  own  expansion  and  safety.  Randolph,  Nich 
olson,  Giles  and  Macon  all  united  in  supporting  the 
President's  plans,  even  when  these  plans  were  only 
imperfectly  known  to  them.  And  how  gladly  did 
Macon  inform  Jefferson  that  the  people  of  North 
Carolina  were  rallying  to  him  almost  unanimously ! 
The  constitutionality  of  the  purchase  was  not  so 
much  as  mentioned. 

Congress  was  called  together  on  the  I7th  of  Octo 
ber,  to  consider  the  Louisiana  purchase;  it  was  a 
glad  meeting.  The  whole  country  was  rejoicing  at 
its  good  fortune,  and  nine  men  in  every  ten  found  in 
Thomas  Jefferson  the  personification  of  his  own 
political  ideals.  Nothing  to  which  he  turned  his 
attention  failed  to  realize;  and  now  the  President 
submits  his  action,  touching  the  long-disputed  terri 
tory,  to  the  legislature,  saying  he  had  transcended 
his  constitutional  bounds,  but  that  he  had  clone  it 
in  the  interest  of  the  people  who  made  the  Constitu 
tion,  he  had  done  it  as  their  agent ;  they  could  exam 
ine  for  themselves  and  repudiate  if  they  wished,  but 
his  recommendation,  based  on  long  political  experi 
ence,  was  that  they  should  accept  his  action,  pay  the 
expense  and  amend  the  Constitution  to  cover  the 
case.  The  Senate  ratified  the  treaty  within  two 
days  by  a  vote  of  24  to  7;  the  House  passed  a  bill 
providing  for  the  extra  appropriations  on  Novem 
ber  10,  by  a  majority  of  89  to  23.  There  was  no 
difficulty  now  in  carrying  government  measures.  If 
ever  a  President  had  reason  for  self-gratulation,  it 
was  Jefferson  in  the  fall  and  winter  of  1803  and 


190  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

1804.  All  the  unbending  opposition  of  the  Seventh 
Congress  was  gone.  In  Massachusetts  and  Connec- 
ticutt  a  change  was  slowly  working,  and  on  the 
Louisiana  purchase,  John  Quincy  Adams,  son  of 
his  father  in  every  fibre,  yielding  to  reason,  gave 
the  Administration  his  vote,  though  not  his  influence 
otherwise.  Virginia  was  so  well  pleased  with  her 
distinguished  son  that  she  sent  both  his  sons-in-law 
to  Congress,  and  another  relative  of  his  was  undis 
puted  leader  on  the  floor  of  the  House.1 

Jefferson  continued  his  retrenchment  and  reform, 
first  in  removing  from  the  statute  books  an  unpopu 
lar  and  expensive  Bankrupt  law,  then  in  still  further 
reducing  the  patronage  of  his  own  office.  Jefferson 
was  not  friendly  to  office-seekers,  and  he  was  espe 
cially  unfriendly 'to  any  of  his  relatives  who  ventured 
to  apply.  A  remark  he  was  accustomed  to  make 
during  these  years  was,  that  1io  connection  of  his, 
no  matter  how  deserving,  need  expect  appointment 
under  his  administration,  for  the  people  could  never 
be  brought  to  see  the  merit,  but  only  the  favoritism 
'of  the  case,  and  thus  the  very  design  of  the  appoint 
ment  would  be  defeated.  If  any  of  his  relatives 
desired  to  enter  the  public  service,  it  must  be,  said  he, 
by  means  of  election  on  the  part  of  the  people.  How 
great  a  pity  some  less  important  men  do  not  under 
stand  the  subject  thus ! 

Congress  chose  again,  on  the  first  day  of  its  assem 
bling,  Nathaniel  Macon  as  its  Speaker ;  and  Macon 
immediately  appointed  his  friend  Randolph  chair 
man  of  the  Ways  and  Means  committee.  Randolph 
was  truly  the  spokesman  of  the  Administration. 
The  only  important  measure,  after  the  passing  of 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  bill,  in  which  Macon  figured 
conspicuously,  was  the  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
ion.  The  long  dead-lock  on  the  election  of  the 

i  Schouler,  vol.  I,,  p.  59-60 ;  Annals  of  Congress,  7th  Cong.,  passim. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF   l8oO.  191 

President  in  1801,  caused  solely  by  the  practice  of 
taking  the  candidates  in  order  of  the  number  of 
votes  cast,  was  a  lesson  sufficiently  impressive  to 
demand  a  remedy  before  the  recurrence  of  a  sec 
ond  similar  crisis.  When  the  reform  measure — 
the  present  electoral  plan — came  before  the  House, 
strong  opposition,  more  for  opposition's  sake  than 
for  any  other  reason,  was  developed.  When  the 
vote  was  taken,  Macon  insisted  on  voting,  and 
it  was  his  vote  which  decided  the  matter,  a  two- 
thirds  failing  without  it.  This  occasioned  some 
criticism,  but  he  was  strong  enough  to  ignore  it.  It 
had  not,  and  has  not  since,  been  the  custom  of  the 
Speaker  to  vote,  except  in  case  of  a  tie.  So  when 
we  cast  our  votes  for  President  and  Vice-President, 
separate  and  distinct,  we  may  recall  that  an  unpre 
cedented  act  of  Nathaniel  Macon  gave  us  the' con 
stitutional  amendment  which  prescribes  such  a 
course. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  session  the  slavery  question 
was  brought  again,  after  some  years  of  silence  on 
the  subject,  to  the  attention  of  Congress  in  the 
form  of  a  resolution  placing  a  tax  of  ten  dollars  a 
head  on  each  slave  imported  into  the  United  States.1 
Obedient  to  the  anti-slavery  movement  of  the  time, 
all  the  States  had  passed  laws  against  the  further 
importation  of  slaves.  But  South  Carolina  now 
removed  all  restriction  on  the  importation  of  slaves, 
a  step  which  practically  annulled  the  slavery  laws  of 
all  other  States,  since  any  man  could  carry  his  slave 
any  where,  either  to  sell  or  to  use  himself.2  Lown- 
des,  a  younger  member  from  South  Carolina,  made  a 
long  speech  in  defence  of  the  action  of  his  State 
Legislature,  on  the  ground  that  the  non-importation 
laws  could  not  be  enforced,  and  that  Congress  itself 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  8th  Cong.,  I.,  991. 

2  Schouler,  II.,  62. 


192  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

had  been  chiefly  responsible  for  that  state  of  affairs. 
Macon  opposed  the  resolution  because  it  "looks  like 
an  attempt  in  the  General  Government  to  correct  a 
State  for  the  undisputed  exercise  of  its  constitutional 
powers.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  something  like  put 
ting  a  State  to  the  ban  of  the  empire.  It  will  oper 
ate  as  a  censure  thrown  on  the  State.  To  this  I  can 
never  consent."  His  additional  argument  was  .that 
a  tax  would  legalize  the  trade,  to  which  he  was  also 
very  much  opposed.1  The  principal  cause  of  Ma- 
con's  opposition  was  that  a  sovereign  State  would 
be  interfered  with.  Here  again  he  foreshadows  his 
later  political  course.  The  resolution  was  passed, 
but  when  Randolph,  as  chairman  of  the  Ways  and 
Means  committee  presented  a  bill  in  conformity  to 
the  resolution,  it  was  postponed  indefinitely.2 

Before  the  adjournment  in  the  spring  of  1804,  a 
caucus  of  the  Republican  members  of  Congress  was 
held  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  on  the  candidates 
for  the  Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency.  Jefferson 
had  often  said  that  the  President  should  serve  only 
one  term,  but  the  great  desire  of  his  party  was  so 
strong  in  favor  of  his  nomination  for  a  second  term 
that  he  yielded  and  became  a  third  time  an  open  can 
didate  for  the  highest  office  in  the  land.  No  doubt 
but  his  personal  objections  were  easily  waived. 
Burr  did  not  possess  the  confidence  of  his  party,  and 
Jefferson  himself  did  not  favor  his  re-nomination. 
Only  the  evening  before  the  caucus  was  to  meet,  the 
Vice-President  had  called  on  Jefferson  with  a  view 
to  winning  his  support.  It  was  refused,  and  George 
Clinton,  an  extreme  State's  Rights  man  from  New 
York,  received  his  support,  and  was  nominated. 
There  was  scarce  a  doubt  that  the  nominee  of  the 
Republican  caucus  would  be  elected.  Macon  at- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  8th  Cong.,  I.,  998. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  8th  Cong.,  I.,  1020-1036. 


THE;  REVOLUTION  OF  1800.  193 

tended'  this  caucus,1  it  seems,  and  was  so  much  dis 
pleased  with  its  proceedings  that  he  resolved  never  to 
attend  another.  He  was  in  no  doubt,  however, 
about  supporting  its  candidates,  and  he  was  all  inter 
est  during  the  summer  elections  in  North  Carolina. 
September  2,  he  wrote  to  Jefferson :  "Our  elections 
are  over,  and  at  the  next  Congress  North  Carolina 
will  be  unanimous  on  the  Republican  side."  There 
was  actually  only  one  Federalist  candidate  in  the 
field — Purviance,  from  Fayetteville.  "American  pol 
itics  are  scarcely  ever  mentioned,  nearly  all  seem  to 
be  satisfied."  And  in  reference  to  the  National 
election  which  was  soon  to  follow,  he  said  in  a  letter 
to  Nicholson,  September  7,  1804 :  "The  Federalists 
in  this  part  of  the  State  have  not  yet  mentioned  a 
name  for  elector,  nor  is  it  probable  they  will,  unless 
they  do  it  a  few  days  before  the  election."  No  other 
reference  to  the  election  was  made  in  any  of  his  let 
ters  which  have  been  preserved. 

Congress  was  called  together  earlier  than  usual, 
in  the  autumn  of  1804,  the  President  anticipating 
trouble  in  steering  the  ship  of  state  in  safety  between 
Great  Britain  on  the  one  hand  and  warlike  France 
on  the  other.  Macon  was  perplexed  what  to  do, 
and  said  so  in  a  letter  to  Nicholson  before  the  open 
ing  of  Congress.2  Jefferson  was  not  fond  of  decid 
ing  difficult  foreign  questions.  As  he  had  recom 
mended  often  enough  before,  Congress  should  decide 
these  matters.  It  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  the 
troubles  which  wrecked  Adams'  administration  were 
now  to  wreck  Jefferson's,  and  to  be  in  part  the  cause 
of  the  almost  universal  criticism  and  abuse  which 
hounded  him  back  to  Monticello  at  the  end  of  his 
term,  sick  and  tired  of  the  world  and  its  turbulent 

1  Macon  to  Bartleit  Yancey,  Dec.  12,  1823. 

2  Nathaniel  Macon  to  Jos.  H.  Nicholson,  September  7,  1804. 

'3 


194  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

politics.  But  other  elements  contributed  to  his  mis 
fortunes  during  his  second  term,  and  other  subjects 
arose  which  well-nigh  wrecked  his  party.  These 
will  be  given  in  the  following  chapter. 

The  last  act  of  the  Republicans,  united  and  mili 
tant,  was  the  attempt  to  impeach  Judge  Samuel 
Chase,  of  the  Supreme  Court.  Chase  had  been  a 
mill-stone  about  the  neck  of  the  Federalist  party; 
now  he  becomes  a  stumbling  block  in  the  path  of  the 
Republicans,  more  particularly  in  that  of  John  Ran 
dolph. 

From  the  beginning  of  our  government,  impeach 
ments  have  been  very  difficult  to  accomplish.  The 
ablest  lawyers  in  North  Carolina,  supported  by  all 
the  weight  of  wealth  and  rank  in  the  State,  had  been 
enlisted  in  the  impeachment  of  Judges  Ashe,  Wil 
liams,  and  Spencer,  of  the  Superior  Court,  in  1786. 
William  Hooper  and  Alexander  Maclaine  exerted 
themselves  to  the  utmost  to  have  the  Judges  found 
guilty  of  maladministration  and  dismissed,  but  to 
no  effect.  The  notorious  case  of  Blount,  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
make  it  exceptionable.  There  were  few  precedents, 
and  the  early  legislatures  were  not  fond  of  tran 
scending  precedent.  The  Republicans  had  success 
fully  impeached  Judge  Pickering,  and  since  that 
had  been  so  well  carried  out,  and  their  exasperation 
at  the  defiant  attitude  of  the  Federal  Courts  was  in 
no  way  appeased,  it  was  finally  resolved  to  call  the 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  account. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  session,  John  Randolph 
reminded  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  the  Chase 
impeachment  proposition,  and  he  was  made  chair 
man  of  a  special  committee  to  review  the  work  of 
the  former  impeachment  committee  and  report  to  the 
House.1  In  accordance  with  his  instructions,  Ran- 

i  See  page  188. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  195 

dolph  reported  articles  of  impeachment  to  the  Rep 
resentatives  on  November  20,  1804.  This  report 
was  taken  up  December  3,  and,  after  a  debate  of 
three  days,  Randolph,  Nicholson  and  Rodney,  of 
Delaware,  were  appointed  to  prosecute  Chase  "for 
high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  before  the  Senate."1 
On  February  4,  the  trial  was  opened  in  the  Senate. 
Judge  Chase  had  retained  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia, 
former  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States, 
Luther  Martin  of  Baltimore,  the  "Federal  Bull 
dog,"  as  Jefferson  termed  him,  and  the  distinguished 
Federalist  leader,  Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  as 
counsel.  Nicholson  and  Rodney  were,  perhaps,  able 
to  cope  with  Chase's  counsel,  but  Randolph  was  not, 
and  especially  not  in  such  an  arena  as  the  United 
States  Senate.  He  was  entirely  unfitted  for  the 
prosecution,  and  he  blundered  even  worse  than  was 
to  have  been  expected,  claimed  extension  of  time  to 
get  his  final  address  ready,  and  when  ready  it  was 
more  harmful  to  his  own  than  to  Chase's  party. 
After  a  month  of  harangue  and  dispute  in  a  cause 
which  would  have  been  sustained  if  ably  and  prop 
erly  presented,  the  impeachment  failed  and  the  Ad 
ministration  was  humiliated  as  no  other  had  ever 
been.2  Why  so  shrewd  a  man  as  Jefferson  allowed 
such  blundering  it  is  difficult  to  say.  He  had  been 
misled,  perhaps,  by  Randolph's  success  in  the  House, 
or  he  was  too  sure  the  strength  of  the  case  was  suffi 
cient  per  se  to  compel  a  verdict  of  impeachment.  It 
was  all  a  sad  business :  Chase  remained  on  the  bench, 
Randolph  returned  to  the  Roanoke,  not  quite  so 
"  proud  as  forty  kings,"  his  political  influence  had 
passed  its  zenith;  Nicholson  never  sat  on  the  Su 
preme  Court  bench ;  and  Jefferson  was  compelled  to 
accommodate  himself  to  the  decisions  of  Judge 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  8th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  726-763. 
3  Schouler,  II.,  86-88. 


196  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Marshall  and  his  powerful  associates.  Macon, 
the  wisest  of  the  Republican  leaders,  had  opposed 
impeachment  all  along;  he  returned  home  feeling 
keenly  enough  the  humiliation  of  his  party,  regret 
ting,  as  well  he  might,  that  his  own  advice  had  not 
been  taken. 

The  first  four  years  of  Republican  administration 
was,  on  the  whole,  satisfactory  to  Macon.  He  had  seen 
government  stripped  of  all  its  formality;  the  levees, 
which  had  called  forth  from  him  an  occasional  sar 
casm,  were  abolished,  and  two  great  pell-mell  recep 
tions  took  their  places.  These  were  on  New  Year's 
day  and  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  President,  though 
he  owned  "a  coach  and  four,"  we  are  told,  rode 
horseback  like  a  country  congressman  about  the  little 
capital,  or  even  to  and  from  Monticello.  Members 
of  Congress  called  at  the  White  House  at  will,  and 
were  received  without  ceremony  or  formality.  Ma 
con1  tells  with  apparent  satisfaction  in  one  of  his 
letters  that  ''The  British  Minister  has  kicked  up  a 
little  dust  about  his  and  his  wife's  rank,  such  as 
going  first  out  of  the  sitting-  into  the  dining-room ! 
having  number  one  given  to  his  wife  at  the  dancing 
assembly ;  and  this  prank  of  the  Briton  has  acted  as 
a  spur  to  the  Spaniard,  and  the  Marquis  de  Hrujo 
has  also  taken  it  into  his  head  to  show  a  trick  or 
two  about  this  new-fangled  doctrine  of  rank,  where 
neither  the  people  nor  their  new  form  of  govern 
ment  acknowledges  any.  However,  I  suspect  both 
their  claims,  although  not  for  money,  will  meet  the 
same  fate,  which  claims  so  often  meet  from  the 
Committee  on  Claims,  that  is,  leave  to  withdraw." 
It  was  with  a  supreme  contempt  that  Macon  viewed 
the  small  practices  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  whose 
members  were  then,  as  they  have  continued  till  this 

i  Macon  to  John  Steele,  February  12,  1804. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  l8oO.  197 

day,  trying  to  give  tone  to  Washington  society, 
despite  the  plain,  practical  President. 

Jefferson's  reputed  atheism  proved  itself  simply  a 
figment  in  the  minds  of  New  England  clergymen,  and 
when  he  took  charge  of  the  government  neither  were 
the  churches  demolished  nor  all  the  Bibles  burned. 
Things  went  on  as  before,  with  the  exception  that 
religious  liberty  received  a  new  impetus.  The 
President  attended  church,  as  other  good  Americans 
did  then  and  do  now,  and  encouraged  the  building 
of  new  ones,  studied  the  Bible  closely,  and  practised 
its  teachings  in  numerous  ways ;  all  of  which  pleased 
Macon  since  he  himself  was  a  Christian,  "of  the 
Baptist  persuasion,"  and  a  life-long  student  of  the 
Scriptures. 

The  government  expense,  as  has  been  noted,  had 
fallen  off  four  millions  a  year,  and  the  National  debt 
was  slowly  disappearing.  All  the  affairs  of  State 
had  been  simplified,  all  its  workings  were  being 
brought  as  nearly  as  possible  within  the  comprehen 
sion  of  the  plainest  farmer.  The  foreign  establish 
ments,  though  not  appreciably  changed,  had  become 
far  less  expensive.  The  civil  service,  too,  had  un 
dergone  a  "chaste  reformation."  No  "old  Tories'* 
were  given  employment  under  the  '  *  Whig  ' '  regime, 
and  the  United  States  Courts  were  stopped  from 
encroaching  on  those  of  the  States.  Comfortable 
thoughts,  all  these,  to  Macon  and  his  constituents. 

But  there  were  other  thoughts  in  Macon's  mind 
that  spring  as  he  turned  his  steps  southward;  he 
was  beginning,  like  Randolph,  to  drift  away  from 
the  Administration.  The  day  of  the  "Old  Repub 
licans,"  as  he  and  Jefferson  termed  them  twenty 
years  later,  was  passing  its  zenith ;  its  sun  was  tak 
ing  its  downward  course. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MACON   AND  THE   "QUIDS,"    1805-1808. 

The  first  intimation  of  Macon's  dissatisfaction 
with  the  Administration  appears  in  a  letter  to  Mon 
roe,  November  15,  I8O3.1  His  language  is  unusu 
ally  guarded,  yet  it  shows  clearly  enough  that  he 
was  displeased  with  the  State  department,  that  is, 
with  its  head,  Madison,  Jefferson's  most  intimate 
friend.  Beginning  with  the  "purchasing"  policy  of 
Jefferson,  he  said,  "the  whole  transaction  is  gener 
ally  well  received  and  popular;  though  it  is  due  to 
truth  to  say  that  some  of  your  friends  would  rather 
the  two  millions  of  dollars  appropriated  at  the  last 
session  of  Congress  should  have  been  otherwise  ap 
plied;  it  is  feared  that  the  application  has  some 
thing  local  in  it,  though  not  towards  Virginia.  You 
will  pardon  my  saying  this  much,  and  be  assured 
that  it  has  proceeded  from  a  sincere  desire  to  com 
municate  that  which  I  think  you  ought  to  know. 
More  would  have  been  said,  but  it  is  believed  some 
of  your  many  friends  must  have  written  to  you  on 
the  subject."  Just  what  Macon  wished  to  tell 
Monroe  would  be  difficult  to  determine  positively; 
but  he  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Randolph's,  and 
Randolph  had  already  conceived  a  jealousy  for  Mad 
ison,  and  was  soon  attempting  to  detach  Monroe 
from  the  Administration — at  least  so  far  as  its  for 
eign  policy  was  concerned.  Monroe  had  won  a 
great  deal  of  popularity  in  the  West  before  he  went 
to  Paris  to  assist  in  the  Louisiana  Purchase ;  the  .suc 
cessful  issue  of  that  undertaking  made  him  a  rival 
of  Madison's  for  the  Presidency.  That  Macon  and 
Randolph  were  advocating  the  preference  of  Monroe 
over  Madison  as  early  as  November,  1803,  is  con- 

*  Monroe  Papers,  State  Department. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  199 

trary  to  the  accepted  opinion,  yet  this  letter  points 
clearly  to  that  conclusion.  How  Macon  came  to 
dislike  Madison  does  not  appear,  except  that  he,  on 
Randolph's  advices,  began  to  believe  Madison  im 
properly  connected  with  the  famous  Yazoo  frauds  in 
Georgia. 

Other  tendencies  toward  alienation  from  the  Ad 
ministration  have  already  appeared  in  his  tardy 
acquiescence  in  the  impeachment  movements  of 
1803-1805.  He  was  not  a  violent  opponent  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  had  he  been  he  would  have  pre 
ferred  to  let  it  cut  off  its  own  head  by  partisan 
decisions  rather  than  to  have  undertaken  this  diffi 
cult  task  as  a  part  of  his  party  program.  Macon 
was  a  decided  advocate  of  the  corrective  power  of 
public  opinion,  and  preferred  always  to  let  it  have 
its  free  course,  and  at  that  particular  time  he  had 
not  thought  public  sentiment  demanded  the  impeach 
ment  of  Chase. 

Some  reference  has  been  made  to  the  Yazoo  land 
frauds.  During  the  last  session  it  had  been  shown 
that  speculators  had  corruptly  procured  from  the 
Georgia  Legislature,  in  1795,  grants  for  large  areas 
of  Western  lands.  The  next  Legislature  annulled 
the  grants,  and  now  the  speculators  were  claiming 
relief  from  Congress.  A  commission  of  the  Cabi 
net,  composed  of  Madison,  Gallatin  and  Lincoln, 
proposed  to  compromise  the  difficulty  by  allowing 
five  million  acres  of  land  to  the  petitioners.  To 
Macon  and  Randolph  this  was  proposing  a  compro 
mise  with  the  devil,  more  especially  since  the  chief 
claimants  were  New  Englanders.  Randolph  had 
made  violent  speeches  against  the  proposed  compro 
mise,  and  Macon  agreed  with  him,  which  was,  of 
course,  the  same  thing  as  charging  the  Administra 
tion  with  winking  at  a  fraud.1  And  again,  towards 

i  Schouler,  II.,  83. 


200   .  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

the  end  of  the  session,  when  the  claim  was  presented 
to  the  House  asking  fourteen  thousand  dollars  for 
repairs  on  the  furniture  of  the  President's  house 
hold,1  Macon's  sense  of  consistency  and  notions  of 
economy  were  violated.  It  was  the  same  claim 
Adams'  friends  had  made,  and  which  he  himself  had 
strenuously  opposed  as  extravagant  and  useless. 
Should  his  own  favorite  leader  and  candidate,  now 
that  he  was  in  power,  practice  the  same  wasteful 
policy?  These  were  the  causes  of  Macon's  partial 
disaffection  to  his  party,  and  the  beginning,  even  at 
the  close  of  the  Eighth  Congress,  of  the  storms  of 
the  Ninth. 

As  a  result  of  the  disaffection  of  Macon  and 
Randolph,  there  was  sufficient  reason  for  the  friends 
of  Macon  to  fear  he  would  not  be  re-elected  Speaker 
at  the  opening  of  the  Ninth  Congress.  Not  a  word 
on  the  subject  seems  ever  to  have  been  uttered  by 
Macon.  But  Randolph  was  anxious  about  his 
friend's  election,  and  more  than  a  month  before 
Congress  was  to  meet  he  wrote  Nicholson  :2  "I  am 
now  seriously  apprehensive  for  his  election;  and 
more  on  his  account  than  from  public  considerations, 
although  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  House,  himself 
and  one  other  excepted,  who  is  in  any  respect  quali 
fied  for  the  office.  I  can  not  deny  that  the  insult 
offered  to  the  man  would  move  me  more  than  the 
injury  done  the  public  by  his  rejection.  Indeed,  I 
am  not  sure  that  such  a  step,  although  productive  of 
temporary  inconvenience,  would  not  be  followed 
by  permanent  good  effects.  It  would  open  the  eyes 
of  many  well-meaning  persons,  who,  in  avoiding 
the  scylla  of  innovation,  have  plunged  into  the 
charybdis  of  federalism.  *  *  Do  not  fail  to 

be  in  Washington  time  enough  to  counteract  the 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  8th  Cong.  2d  Ses?.,  1211 
2  Life  of  John  Randolph,  by  Henry  Adams,  15?. 


MACON  AND  THE)  "QUIDS."  201 

plot  against  the  Speaker,  and  pray  apprise  such  of 
his  friends  as  are  within  your  reach  of  its  existence." 
That  there  was  a  plan  on  foot  to  defeat  Macon  can 
hardly  be  doubted,  and  because  of  the  events  of  the 
last  session  of  Congress,  not  because  of  unfitness. 
Randolph  said  he  was  the  only  man,  with  one  ex 
ception,  fitted  for  the  Speaker's  chair.  From  the 
letter  just  quoted  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  Admin 
istration  was  trying  to  secure  Macon's  defeat.  But 
this  was  not  true.  Jefferson  could,  indeed,  have 
defeated  Macon  by  a  single  word ;  but  that  word  was 
not  given.  In  fact,  the  President  was  trying  to  con 
ciliate  all  but  Randolph,  and  so  if  he  had  any  share 
in  the  election  of  the  Speaker  at  all,  it  was  in  the 
interest  of  Macon.  Still  it  was  by  a  bare  majority, 
after  three  ballots,  that  Macon  was  elected.  He 
was  thought  to  be  too  friendly  to  Randolph,  and 
Randolph  had  lost  his  prestige  during  the  last  ses 
sion  of  Congress  so  completely  that  the  ever-in 
creasing  Northern  wing  of  the  party  demanded  an 
other  leader.  It  was  not  the  Speaker  so  much  to 
whom  objection  was  made,  as  the  former  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  Ways  and  Means.  But  both 
these  men  had  come  to  stand  for  a  policy  which  was 
much  to  the  disliking  of  the  Eastern  Republicans. 
It  was  the  policy  of  Southern  supremacy  and  States' 
Rights,  begun  with  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  and 
which  was  to  end  a  half  a  century  later  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Civil  War.  Macon,  as  we  know,  ad 
vised  Jefferson  during  the  summer  of  1802  to  secure 
Florida  at  any  reasonable  cost,  and  assured  him  of 
the  hearty  support  of  the  South  in  such  event.  Ran 
dolph  stood  for  the  same  along  with  his  State-su 
premacy  creed.  These  men,  with  their  aristocratic 
manners  and  their  democratic  policy,  were  domina 
ting  the  Union — the  chief  cause  of  complaint  in 
New  England.  The  narrow  margin  of  party  sup- 


202  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

port,  and  the  almost  general  discontent  of  the  Repute 
licans,  did  not  prevent  Macon's  promptly  placing 
Randolph  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means.1 

Macon's  appointment  of  his  friend  proved  at  once 
to  be  a  great  blunder.  Jefferson  asked  Congress 
for  the  sum  of  two  million  dollars,  with  which  to 
purchase  Florida;  but  because  this  request  was  not 
made  quite  to  the  liking  of  Randolph,  the  latter 
refused  to  bring  in  a  favorable  bill.  The  President 
was  annoyed,  but  soon  turned  to  Varnum,  Macon's 
competitor  for  the  Speakership,  and  asked  him  and 
Bidwell,  a  very  influential  member  from  Massachu 
setts,  .to  bring  a  proper  resolution  before  the  House. 
The  House  at  once  passed  the  resolution  and  granted 
the  appropriation  accordingly — the  breach  was 
there ;  the  Speaker  and  the  committee  on  Ways  and 
Means  were  out  of  accord  with  the  President,  and 
the  latter  still  had  control  of  the  House.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  a  stormy  session,  and  Macon,  Ran 
dolph  and  Nicholson  became  the  first  members  of 
the  little  group  of  independents  called  "the  Quids." 

Before  Congress  met,  we  find  Macon  lamenting 
the  action  of  Great  Britain  in  returning  again  to  her 
former  policy  of  domineering  the  trade  of  the  pow 
ers  which  refused  to  take  part  in  the  fierce  war  then 
waging  between  England  and  the  French  Empire. 
He  was  at  a  loss  what  to  do  or  recommend,  and  went 
to  Washington  with  ominious  forebodings  as  to  the 
immediate  future  of  the  country.  When  the  Presi 
dent  recommended,  by  secret  message,  that  some 
thing  be  done  to  bring  England  to  terms,  Randolph 
feigned  sickness,  and  ran  off  to  Baltimore  for  a 
month,  thus  baffling  the  Executive  in  its  most  impor 
tant  measure.  No  report,  no  recommendation  of 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  3ess.,25i;  Schouler,  II.,  in. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  203 

any  kind,  had  been  made  by  the  end  of  January,  and 
the  House  agreed  to  discharge  Randolph's  committee 
and  take  up  the  subject  itself  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole.  Accordingly,  Gregg  of  Pennsylvania  offered 
resolutions  suspending  all  commercial  relations  with 
Great  Britain.1  Macon  opposed  the  resolution  in  a 
lengthy  speech.  His  opposition  was  based  on  the 
ground  that  the  proposed  measure  would  provoke 
war,  to  which  he  was  opposed  under  almost  all  cir 
cumstances.  It  was  to  no  great  advantage  that  he 
appeared  in  this  address,  and  he  was  at  some  diffi 
culty  to  prove  his  course  not  inconsistent  with  his 
past  conduct.  It  was  Randolph's  influence  over  him 
which  seems  to  have  dictated  much  of  his  argument. 
His  agrarian  policy  now  became  narrow,  indeed,  and 
rather  merited  the  ungainly  name  it  won  about  this 
time — the  "mud-turtle  policy  of  Southern  Republi 
cans."2 

Macon,  Randolph  and  Nicholson,  alienated  from 
the  Administration,  began  actively  to  scheme  against 
Madison's  succession  for  the  Presidency,  which  was 
thought  to  be  Jefferson's  wish.  Macon's  rather 
enigmatical  letter  to  Monroe  had  perhaps  been  the 
beginning  of  overtures  to  Monroe.  Before  the  close 
of  the  present  session,  Randolph  wrote  Monroe3  to 
hurry  home  to  defeat  the  plan  "for  bringing  Madi 
son  in,"  and  assured  him  of  the  support  of  "the  old 
Republicans."  April  22,  he  wrote  again,  "A  decided 
division  has  taken  place  in  the  Republican  party, 
which  has  been  followed  by  a  proscription  of  the 
anti-ministerialists.  Among  the  number  of  the  pro 
scribed  are  Mr.  Nicholson,  who  has  retired  in  strong 
disgust  (sic?),  the  Speaker,  who  will  soon  follow 
him  from  like  sentiment,  and  many  others  of  minor 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  411-414. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  686. 

3  March  20,  1806,  in  Nathaniel  Macon  Papers. 


\ 


204  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

consequence,  such  as  the  writer  of  this  letter,  cum 
multis  aliis."1  And  June  10,  William  Wirt  wrote 
Monroe  that  "Randolph  told  the  President  in  com 
pany  he  was  for  no  more  milk-and-water  Presi 
dents."2  June  i,  Macon  wrote  Nicholson  from 
Buck  Spring :  "The  Madisonians  will  not  lose  any 
thing  by  neglect  or  indolence;  they  may  overact 
their  part,  and  in  their  zeal  to  keep  Randolph  down, 
may  make  some  lukewarm  about  Madison.  If  Ran 
dolph  had  have  stuck  to  the  embargo,  he  would  have 
been  up  in  spite  of  them.  *  *  *  Madison  will, 
I  think,  get  the  votes  of  North  Carolina  for  Presi 
dent,  and  a  part  of  them  merely  because  there  is 
not  a  serious  opposition  to  him."3 

What  does  all  this  mean  but,  what  the  Annals  of 
Congress  point  to,  that  these  three  men  began  their 
plan  of  "President-making" — what  Macon  so  much 
deprecated  in  others  a  little  later — as  soon  as  Ran 
dolph's  break  with  the  Administration  took  place, 
and  kept  it  up  all  through  the  session.  Randolph 
was  conscious  that  his  loss  of  influence  was  due  to 
his  failure  in  impeaching  Chase,  as  is  shown  in  his 
resolutions  for  amending  the  Constitution,  giving 
Congress  the  power  to  remove  at  will  any  judge  of 
the  United  States  Courts.4  He  was  seeking  some  one 
on  whom  to  put  the  blame  of  his  own  errors,  and  he 
found  the  Administration.  Randolph  had  aimed  at 
the  Presidency ;  and  Macon  had  not  discouraged 
him.  And  going  a  step  further,  he  then  declared 
himself  a  party  by  himself,  set  up  to  oppose  all  men 
and  measures  when  he  believed  any  incorrect  meth 
ods  used.  He  was  "the  man  who  spoke  out  his 
thoughts"  on  all  occasions,  and  knowing  that  the 

1  Nathaniel  Macon  Papers. 

2  Nathaniel  Macon  Papers. 

3  J.  H.  Nicholson  Papers. 

4  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  500. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  205 

Constitution  had  been  violated,  at  least  in  the  letter, 
by  both  political  parties,  he  constituted  himself  the 
champion  of  that  instrument,  and  invited  to  him  ;all! 
who  favored  strict  construction.  Randolph  and  the 
Constitution,  the  Constitution  and  Randolph,  were 
his  texts  on  all  occasions  when  Virginia  was  not. 
Macon's  political  creed  was  similar,  and  so  it  was  not 
difficult  for  him  to  desert  Jefferson  for  Randolph, 
to  become  a  stricter  champion  of  the  Constitution 
than  ever  before. 

When  the  Yazoo  dispute  came  again  before  the 
House  in  the  form  of  a  Senate  bill,  Randolph  made 
most  violent  opposition,  and  charged  the  Adminis 
tration  with  smothering  all  opposition,  insinuating 
further  that  the  great  Administration  paper,  the 
National  Intelligencer,  whose  editors  were  the  re 
porters  for  Congress,  had  suppressed  his  speech  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  Government.1  "The  Man  of 
the  Mountain  (Jefferson),"  he  continued,  "is  the 
truest  prophet  that  ever  lived.  He  has  only  to 
prophesy  to  insure  the  perdition  of  any  man."  To 
him  the  whole  cause  of  the  division  of  the  Republi 
can  party  was  the  Yazoo  fraud,  and  since  the  Ad 
ministration  had  "sold  the  country,"  he  was  ready 
to  speak  his  mind  against  any  man,  and  in  the  most 
sarcastic  and  drastic  manner.  And  still  sore  about 
the  impeachment,  he  said,  "At  the  last  session  I  had 
the  honor  to  carry  up  and  conduct  an  impeachment 
before  the  other  House.  It  proved  unsuccessful, 
and  one  of  the  principal  causes  was  this  Yazoo  sin. 
I  overheard  a  conversation  between  a  worthy  friend 
of  mine  from  Georgia,  who  has  gone  home,  and  a 
great  officer  of  the  Government,  when  they  were 
filling  the  green  boxes  for  the  magnates  of  the  land. 
I  heard  the  great  officer  of  the  Government  tamper 
ing  with  that  man  to  get  his  vote.  *  *  *  Why, 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  908. 


206  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

sir,  this  is  nothing;  it  is  done  every  day,  and  every 
hour  of  the  day.  It  is  there  at  the  fireside — and  not 
on  the  floor — that  the  affairs  of  the  country  are  dis 
cussed.  *  *  *  What  have  we  seen  as  late  as 
yesterday  ?  A  vote  of  fifty-six  in  favor  of  a  resolu 
tion  dwindled  down  by  conversation  in  the  lobby  to 
twenty-five."  These  were  just  such  charges,  sup 
ported  by  a  certain  appearance  of  evidence  as  they 
were,  which  won  Macon  to  the  little  group  of  poli 
ticians  who  followed  Randolph  and  undertook  to 
avenge  his  wrong.  Macon's  whole  life  was  a  pro 
test  against  caucusing,  against  underhanded  schem 
ing;  and  now  that  Jefferson  seemed  guilty  of  such 
practices,  he  was  ready  to  fall  away  from  him,  and 
almost  ready  to  exclaim  with  the  Federalists,  "O 
tempora,  temporal" 

That  this  split  in  the  ranks  of  the  dominant  party 
was  due  in  the  first  instance  to  the  disagreement 
about  the  successorship,  as  Schouler  suggests,  is 
quite  probable ;  yet  the  impeachment  disaster  seems, 
at  least  so  far  as  Randolph  was  concerned,  to  have 
been  its  immediate  cause.  Randolph  claimed  that 
Jefferson  had  caused  the  defeat  of  his  own  plan. 
Macon,  though  he  wrote  a  very  compromising  letter 
to  Monroe  in  1804,  was  not  an  ardent  advocate  of 
Monroe's  candidacy.  In  this  Randolph  did  not 
command  him.  "I  have  been  at  a  public  dinner," 
wrote  Macon,  June  I,  1806  (quoted  above),  "where 
there  were  a  considerable  number  of  people  present. 
I  gave  my  opinion  freely  as  to  the  next  President, 
and  the  character  talked  of  for  it,  and  the  man 
whom  I  would  prefer.  Some  stared,  and  after 
awhile  objected  to  the  man  in  the  usual  cant,  that 
he  came  from  Geneva  (Gallatin,  of  course),  but  the 
number  that  objected  was  not  large,  nor  did  the 
objection  (foreign  birth)  seem  to  have  weight  with 
many.  Having  named  him,  I  defended  him  with 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  207 

true  democratic  zeal."  Macon's  advocacy  of  Galla- 
tin  for  Jefferson's  successor  was  not  meant  as  a 
check  to  Madison,  and  ultimately  to  help  Monroe. 
Notwithstanding  Randolph's  influence,  Macon 
never,  except  in  the  letter  above  referred  to,  ex 
pressed  any  preference  for  Monroe,  and  what  proves 
till  more  conclusively  the  sincerity  of  his  advocacy 
of  the  Pennsylvanian  appears  later  in  his  life  when 
he  again  turns  to  him  for  President. 

Jefferson  regretted  very  much  the  "family  quar 
rel,"  and  sought  by  all  reasonable  means  to  conciliate 
those  who  found  fault  with  his  administration.  Be 
fore  Congress  adjourned  he  wrote  Macon1  that 
someone  was  "sowing  tares"  among  the  Republican 
leaders ;  that  this,  however,  could  not  prove  effective 
in  Macon's  case.  A  full  and  mutual  confidence  in 
each  other,  he  said,  would  prevent  this.  He  closed 
the  letter  by  inviting  Macon  to  dine  with  him. 
Whether  the  latter  accepted  we  do  not  know,  but  it 
is  doubtful  in  view  of  the  influence  Randolph  and 
Nicholson  were  exerting  over  him  at  that  time.  To 
William  Duane2  he  wrote  similarly  explaining  Ran 
dolph's  attitude,  and  declaring  that  the  reputed  cool 
ness  between  the  President  and  the  Southern  mem 
bers  did  not  exist,  except  possibly  on  the  part  of  a 
few  men  who  followed  Randolph.  Jefferson  an 
swers  the  charges  against  him,  and  with  regard  to 
the  Quids,  he  says,  "That  I  have  avowed  or  enter 
tain  any  predilection  for  those  called  Quids  is  in 
every  tittle  false."  To  Monroe,  who,  as  we  have  / 
seen,  was  the  object  of  Randolph's  caresses,  the- 
President  had  the  following  to  say  of  Randolph  and 
his  followers :  "Our  old  friend,  Mercer,  broke  off 
from  us  some  time  ago;  at  first  disdaining  to  join 
the  Federalists,  yet,  from  the  habit  of  voting  to- 

1  Macon  Papers. 

2  Jeflerson's  Writings,  VII,  431. 


208  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

gether,  becoming  soon  identified  with  them.  *  *  "* 
Mr.  J.  Randolph  is  in  the  same  track,  and  will  end 
in  the  same  way.  *  *  *  Upon  all  trying  ques 
tions,  exclusive  of  the  Federalists,  the  minority  of 
Republicans  voting  with  him  has  been  from  4  to  6 
or  8."  And  after  further  particulars  regarding  the 
split  in  their  party,  he  says,  "But  it  is  unfortunate 
for  you  to  be  embarrassed  with  a  soi-disant  friend. 
You  must  not  commit  yourself  to  him."1  This  was 
at  the  very  time  when  Randolph  was  attempting  to 
get  Monroe  to  come  home  and  enter  the  race  for 
the  Presidency  against  Madison.  What  Jefferson 
accomplished  by  his  adroit  letter  writing  was  to 
win  to  himself  the  less  violent  of  the  disaffected,  and 
leave  Randolph  alone  in  his  greatness.  Macon  main 
tained  his  independence  towards  all  but  Randolph, 
and  towards  him  in  the  presidential  successorship. 

Just  how  many  of  the  North  Carolina  delegates 
in  the  House  joined  Randolph's  little  group  can  not 
be  determined  accurately.  On  the  first  test  vote,  on 
the  Non-importation  bill,  not  a  vote  of  North  Caro 
lina  was  given  against  the  the  Administration,  and 
Randolph,  in  order  not  to  be  alone,  absented  himself 
from  the  House.  But  on  other  occasions,  Richard 
Stanford  of  Hillsborough,  an  able  man  and  deter 
mined  Republican,  Thomas  Wynne  of  Hertford, 
and  Joseph  Winston  of  Surry,  affiliated  with  the 
Quids.  There  were  never  more  than  a  dozen  Re 
publicans  in  the  whole  country  who  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  Macon-Randolph-Nicholson  group. 

The  Ninth  Congress  assembled  for  its  last  session 
on  December  i,  1806,  and  the  Northern  Republicans, 
fearing  Randolph's  re-appointment  at  the  head  of 
the  committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  proposed  to 
take  from  the  Speaker  the  right  of  naming  the 
standing  committees.  Alston,  of  North  Carolina, 

1  Jefferson's  Writings,  VIII,  447-48. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  9th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  127. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  209 

and  a  friend  of  Macon's,  favored  the  new  plan,  thus 
showing  that  the  fear  of  Randolph's  re-appointment 
was  prevalent  in  the  South,  and  on  the  Roanoke 
even.  By  an  amendment  to  the  resolution,  it  was 
finally  passed  in  favor  of  the  Speaker's  appointing 
power  as  heretofore,  but  by  a  majority  of  only  two. 
Macon  understood  the  opposition  to  himself,  and 
recognized  the  bad  policy  of  placing  the  President's 
bitterest  opponent  at  the  head  of  the  most  important 
committee  of  the  House,  and  so  he  appointed  Jo 
seph  Clay  of  Pennsylvania  as  Randolph's  successor. 
Clay  had  defeated  the  resolution  to  elect  standing 
committees,  by  bringing  up  the  amendment  just 
referred  to.  But  Macon  regretted  much  the  cir 
cumstances,  and  wrote  his  friend  Nicholson  the  next 
day,1  "In  the  disagreeable  seat  of  Speaker  I  write. 
I  have  been  obliged  to  hear  the  journal  read  in 
which  the  name  of  J.  R.  was  not  on  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means.  Many  may  no  doubt  think  my 
feelings  were  too  nice  on  this  occasion ;  but  such 
was  my  sense  of  duty  that  I  could  not  act  otherwise. 
My  mind  was  so  agitated  last  night  after  writing  to 
you,  that  I  spent  a  sleepless  night — write  me  your 
opinion  on  this  to  me  delicate  subject.''  What  a 
simple,  honest,  straightforward  mind  is  here  por 
trayed  !  Randolph  was  his  friend,  he  had  been 
chairman  of  the  committee  by  Macon's  appointment 
since  December,  1801.  How  trying  it  was  to  the 
Speaker  to  decide  between  devotion  to  his  friend  and 
loyalty  to  his  country!  But  duty  won,  and  Ran 
dolph  was  not  appointed.2  A  few  days  after  Con 
gress  began  its  work,  it  was  "ordered"  by  the  House 
"that  Mr.  Garnett  be  excused  from  serving  on  the 
Committee  on  Ways  and  Means/'  and  that  Mr. 

1  Nicholson  Papers,  December  2,  1806. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  110-112. 


210  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

John  Randolph  be  appointed  of  the  said  committee 
in  his  stead" — a  sort  of  "sop  to  Cerberus."  But 
Cerberus  did  not  accept. 

Opposition  to  the  navy  was  a  characteristic  feature 
of  Macon's  policy.  In  the  struggle  between  the 
Federalists  and  Republicans  in  1798  on  the  subject 
of  Protection  of  Trade,  he  had  refused  to  vote 
any  protection  whatever,  and  had  opposed  allowing 
Vvar  vessels  to  convoy  trading  fleets  across  the  At 
lantic,  even  in  case  a  large  navy  was  built.  When 
Jefferson's  Non-importation  measure  came  before 
Congress,  the  clause  for  authorizing  additional  war 
vessels  and  coast  fortifications  met  Macon's  posi 
tive  opposition  :  "I  can  not  but  consider  the  present 
resolution  as  the  commencement  of  a  system  of  forti 
fications  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other. 
I  can  see  neither  the  necessity  nor  the  policy  of  this 
second  trial  of  the  credit  of  this  Government ;  it  was 
once  found  that  money  could  not  be  procured  on  the 
credit  of  the  United  States  for  less  than  eight  per 
cent  per  annum.  *  *  *  Gentlemen  tell  us  of  an 
American  spirit.  I  hope  I  have  as  much  of  it  as 
any  gentleman ;  but  it  is  as  much  the  character  of  the 
American  spirit  to  conclude  coolly,  and  act  accord 
ingly,  as  to  talk  loudly.  Members  of  this  House 
are  not  the  only  persons  to  judge  of  this  spirit;  our 
constituents  are  the  proper  judges.  *  *  *  On 
the  subject  of  gun-boats,  I  believe  them  better 
adapted  to  the  defence  of  our  harbors  than  any 
other.  If  we  were  now  at  war  with  any  nation, 
however  gentlemen  may  be  surprised  at  the  declara 
tion,  I  think  we  should  do  well  to  lend  our  navy  to 
another  nation  also  at  war  with  that  with  which  we 
might  be  at  war;  for  I  think  such  nations  would 
manage  it  more  to  our  advantage  than  ourselves."1 
A  curious  policy,  to  be  sure,  was  this ;  but  it  was  in 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  524. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  211 

accord  with  Macon's  general  attitude  toward  naval 
armaments. 

The  Southern  agriculturists  had  from  the  be-\ 
ginning  opposed  all  such  outlay,  claiming  that 
it  was  useless,  and  believing,  without  saying  so, 
however,  that  every  ship  built  to  protect  trade  was 
putting  arms  in  the  hands  of  New  England  with 
which  to  fight  them  ultimately.  In  view  of  this, 
Macon  was  not  so  unwise,  nor  his  political  foresight 
so  short  as  some  have  claimed.  During  the  quarrel 
between  his  erratic  Virginian  friend  and  the  Admin 
istration,  when  the  subject  of  foreign  intercourse 
was  constantly  before  the  House,  Macon  held  this' 
policy  firmly  in  view,  and  opposed  on  every  occasion 
any  appropriation  looking  to  the  building  of  a  navy. 
He  even  opposed  the  fortifying  of  harbors,  claiming 
the  gun-boat  method  sufficient  for  purposes  of  de 
fense.  In  this  policy  Randolph  joined  him,  though 
as  much  from  motives  of  enmity  to  the  President  as 
from  set  conviction.  But  both  Macon  and  Ran 
dolph  were  advocates  of  the  so-called  "mud-turtle" 
plan  of  Southern  expansionists.  Randolph  spoke 
out  distinctly  this  Southern  view  of  things  when  he 
said  in  the  debate  on  the  Non-importation  Act: 
"What  is  the  question  in  dispute?  The  carrying 
trade.  What  part  of  it?  The  fair,  the  honest  and 
useful  trade,  that  is  engaged  in  carrying  our  own 
productions  to  foreign  markets  and  bringing  back 
their  productions  in  exchange?  No,  sir;  it  is  that 
carrying  trade  which  covers  enemy's  property,  and 
carries  the  coffee,  the  sugar,  and  other  West  Indian 
products  to  the  mother  country.  No.  sir ;  if  this 
great  agricultural  nation  is  to  be  governed  by  Salem 
and  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  Baltimore 
and  Norfolk,  and  Charleston,  let  gentlemen  come 
out  and  say  so.  *  *  *  I,  for  one,  will  not  mort 
gage  my  property  and  my  liberty  to  carry  on  this 


212  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

trade."1  When  Randolph  declared  he  would  never 
vote  a  shilling  for  a  navy,  and  Macon  said  "lend 
your  navy  to  a  foreign  enemy  of  our  enemy,  they  can 
use  it  to  better  advantage  than  we,"  they  were  oppo 
sing  New  England  and  speaking  for  the  South,  not 
speaking  out  their  "American  spirit."  Since  the 
navy  was  commanded  by  Easterners  and  tracje  con 
trolled  the  Eastern  cities,  Macon's  advice  was  meant 
more  as  a  reflection  on  that  section  than  as  an  admis 
sion  of  America's  inferiority. 

Judged  in  the  light  of  future  events,  the  most 
important  act  of  this  session  of  Congress2  was  that 
which  settled  for  a  long  time  to  come  the  status  of 
the  slave  trade.  Importation  of  foreign  slaves  into 
the  United  States  had  been  prohibited  by  the  Con 
stitution  after  January  i,  1808.  This  bill  was  drawn 
in  accordance  with  the  compromise  of  the  Consti 
tution,  which  had  won  for  the  Constitution  the  sup 
port  of  South  Carolina  in  1788.  It  had  been  conceded 
then  that  the  slave  trade  might  continue  until  1808, 
and  in  consideration  of  this  concession  South  Caro 
lina  voted  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  for  the 
right  of  "regulating  foreign  commerce"  to  be  given 
to  the  proposed  Union.  The  period  of  twenty  years 
had  now  passed  ;  South  Carolina,  having  broken  with 
her  former  ally,  New  England,  had  been  favoring  its 
extension,  and  now  boldly  claimed  that  Congress 
could  not  constitutionally  prevent  the  trade  being 
carried  on  if  the  State  persisted  in  favoring  it. 
And  here  began  a  new  application  of  the  doctrine  of 
State  sovereignty,  which  Jefferson  himself  could 
not  have  opposed  consistently,  and  which  Macon 
and  Randolph  incorporated  into  their  political  creed. 
This,  like  their  opposition  to  the  navy,  was  based 
upon  agrarian  principles.  As  yet  the  prosperity  of 

1  Garland's  Randolph,  I.,  233. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  gib.  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  506-507. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  213 

the  East  depended  on  commerce,  that  of  the  South 
on  agriculture  based  on  slave  labor.  The  East  nom 
inally  in  the  name  of  humanity,  but  really  in  the 
interest  of  its  own  supremacy  was  striking  a  blow  at 
slavery;  the  South,  in  the  name  of  agricultural 
America,  but  really  in  support  of  its  own  suprem 
acy,  attempted  to  ward  off  this  blow  by  resorting  to 
the  popular  doctrine  of  State's  Rights.  As  has  been 
remarked  before,  it  was  an  economic  struggle,  a  war 
for  dollars,  and  both  parties  recognized  this  without 
admitting  it. 

Macon  said  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  this 
subject:  "I  still  consider  this  a  commercial  question. 
The  laws  of  nations  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
it  than  the  laws  of  the  Turks  or  the  Hindoos.  *  *  * 
If  this  is  not  a  commercial  question,  I  would  thank 
the  gentleman  to  show  what  part  of  the  Constitution 
gives  any  right  to  legislate  on  this  subject.  It  is  in 
vain  to  talk  of  turning  these  creatures  loose  to  cut 
our  throats."  According  to  one  clause  of  the  bill, 
any  attempt  to  import  a  slave  was  to  be  followed  by 
forfeiture.  An  amendment  was  offered  by  Bidwell 
of  Massachusetts  which  provided  that  no  person 
should  be  sold  as  a  slave  as  a  result  of  this  for 
feiture,  i.  e.,  the  negro  was  to  be  set  free.  The  vote 
on  this  clause  was-  a  tie,  and  Macon  promptly 
vetoed  it.1  The  only  North  Carolina  member  who 
voted  against  Macon  on  this  question  was  Joseph 
Winston  of  Surry,  a  hint  that  the  West  was  not  at 
one  with  the  East  on  slavery.  A  bill  was  finally 
drawn  up  and  passed  by  the  Senate,  which  included 
the  clause  Macon  had  opposed,  but  which  passed  the 
House  by  a  majority  of  113  to  5,  and  which  abol 
ished  forever  the  foreign  slave  trade.  Macon  made 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Congr.  2d  Sess.,  266;  also  Boyd's  Nathaniel 
Macon  in  National  Legislation,  Trinity  Archive,  XIII,  156. 


\ 


214  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

no  opposition,  and  Randolph  did  not  vote;1  it  was 
an  Administration  measure  in  its  final  form. 

Congress  was  about  to  close  with  a  duel  between 
the  two  Randolphs,  Thomas  M.  and  John,  about  an 
imagined  insult  to  the  former  in  one  of  the  speeches 
of  the  latter.  The  matter  was  patched  up  some 
what  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  former,  he  evidently 
not  desiring  it  to  appear  that  the  Administration 
(Thomas  M.  Randolph  was  a  son-in-law  of  the 
President)  was  taking  this  means  to  get  rid  of  a 
powerful  opponent.  Three  or  four  days  before  the 
adjournment,  Macon  and  Randolph  had  an  amus 
ing  encounter.  The  latter,  speaking  against  a  pro 
posed  salt  tax,  said,  "It  appears  to  me  that  the  mo 
tion  before  the  House  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
a  prologue  to  the  same  miserable  farce  of  tergiversa 
tion  relative  to  the  salt  tax  and  the  Mediterranean 
fund  played  over  the  last  session.  Their  high  migh 
tinesses,  the  Senate —  Macon  called  the  speaker 
to  order,  who  continued,  however,  without  any 
change  in  his  thought,  to  speak  out  his  opinion  of 
the  Senate,  culminating  in :  "If  the  Senate  will  de 
scend  from  their  supercilious  elevation."  Macon 
again  called  Randolph  to  order,  and  the  speech  was 
closed  after  a  few  remarks  more. 

Before  the  end  of  this  session  Macon  broke  with 
Randolph  politically;  he  gradually  turned  again  to 
the  Administration,  but  without  offending  his  friend, 
and,  as  we  shall  see,  without  yielding  his  independ 
ence.  June  i,  1807,  he  wrote  Nicholson,  "Since  my 
return,  I  have  been  mostly  at  home  and  scarcely  ever 
heard  the  next  presidential  election  mentioned, 
though  I  am  inclined  to  think  at  this  time  Clinton 
would  unite  more  votes  in  this  State  than  any  other 
man.  Madison  probably  more  than  Monroe.  *  *  * 
As  to  myself,  I  would  prefer  Gallatin  to  any  man  in 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  gth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  486. 


MACON  AND  THE  "QUIDS."  215 

the  nation,  and  were  the  Republicans  to  make  such 
an  effort  as  they  made  to  get  Jefferson  elected  the 
first  time,  I  am  sure  he  would  be  elected  by  a  great  f 
majority.  *  *  *  The  sending  back  the  treaty  (the 
work  of  Monroe  in  London)  will,  I  think,  injure  ( 
Monroe;  it  will  be  taken  as  a  proof  that  Jefferson 
did  not  approve  his  conduct,  and  certainly  his  sign-  N 
ing  it  without  making  provision  for  the  sailors  (who 
were  still  being  impressed),  will  injure  him  in  all 
the  Commercial  towns/'1  This  is  not  the  letter  of  a 
partisan.  His  opinion  that  North  Carolina  would 
vote  for  Clinton  was  based  on  the  growth  of  State's 
Rights  ideas.  It  was  notorious  that  Clinton  was 
an  extremist  on  this  subject  and  he  was  building 
up  the  individual  interests  of  New  York  in  a  way 
which  has  caused  his  impress  to  be  stamped  indeli 
bly  on  the  history  of  that  young  empire.  Sentiment  .. 
in  North  Carolina  and  the  South  was  as  strongly  I 
particularist  as  ever.  Macon's  continued  prefer 
ence  for  Gallatin  was  proof  of  his  independence  and 
his  remarks  on  Monroe's  political  status  show  that 
he  appreciated  Monroe's  position,  but  at  the  same 
time  could  do  justice  to  Jefferson,  which  Ran 
dolph  certainly  could  not.  Before  the  assembling  of 
the  tenth  Congress,  Macon  was  ready  for  a  final 
separation  from  "the  Quids"  and  prepared  to  co 
operate  with  the  Republican  party  even  if  Madison 
should  become  President.  The  Quids,  with  Ran 
dolph  as  their  chief  and  political  idol,  continued 
their  course  and  were  to  embarrass  the  main  body 
of  republicans  on  many  an  important  occasion. 

Macon's  speakership  was  ended.  No  one  thought 
of  his  being  elected  again  in  the  following  Decem 
ber.  He  had  been  made  Speaker  without  any  exer 
tions  on  his  part;  he  had  been  elected  three  times 
in  succession  without  any  scheming  of  his  own ;  he 

i  Macon  Papers. 


. 


216  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

had  supported  the  faction  headed  by  Randolph  and 
had  given  it  up  at  his  own  discretion,  and  was  now 
again  in  full  accord  with  his  party  in  the  Nation. 
In  North  Carolina  his  supremacy  was  unquestioned, 
and  there,  too,  without  any  of  that  organizing  indus 
try  and  practice  so  common  and  usually  so  neces 
sary  to  political  leaders.  He  stood  plainly,  in  1808 
as  in  1/91,  on  the  platform  of  the  people's  Sover 
eignty,  never  wavering,  never  faltering  even  at  the 
risk  sometimes  of  being  charged  with  inconsistency. 
The.  people  recognized  his  platform  and  believed  in 
his  sincerity  to  a  degree  approximating  knowledge. 
This  it  was  which  gave  him  primacy,  and  this  it  was, 
with  his  special  gifts  as  a  moderator,  which  had 
given  him  the  Speakership  in  1801,  and  continued 
to  give  it  to  him  as  long  as  the  South  remained 
dominant  in  the  councils  of  the  Republicans.  His 
Speakership  marks  the  period  of  American  politics 
ruled  by  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  a  singu 
larly  interesting  rule  it  was. 

Twice  during  Jefferson's  administration  Macon 
was  offered  a  place  in  the  cabinet  as  postmaster- 
general,  but  he  declined.  Just  when  these  over 
tures  were  made  has  not  been  determined,  no  record 
of  it  appearing  either  in  Jefferson's  writings  or 
among  the  collection  of  fragmentary  papers  which 
Macon 's  family  have  preserved.  It  is  probable  that 
one  of  these  offers  was  made  in  1806,  when  the  Pres 
ident  was  exerting  himself  to  detach  Macon  from 
Randolph's  group  of  faultfinders.1 

i  The  Macon  Papers.    See  page  207. 

NOTE  —March  22  of  that  year  Jefferson  wrote  Macon  as  follows  :  "Some 
enemy,  whom  we  know  not,  is  sowing  tares  among  us  ;  between  you 
a  ad  myself  nothing  but  opportunities  of  explanation  can  be  necessary 
to  defeat  these  endeavors,  at  least  on  my  part.  My  confidence  in  you 
is  so  unqualified  that  nothing  further  is  necessary  for  my  satisfaction. 
I  must  therefore  ask  a  conversation  with  you — this  evening  my  com 
pany  may  perhaps  stay  late ;  but  to-morrow  evening  or  the  next  I  can 
be  alone.  I  mention  the  evening  because  it  is  the  time  at  which  when 
we  can  be  free  from  interruption.  However,  take  the  day  and  hour 
most  convenient  to  yourself.  Accept  my  affectionate  salutations." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OF  THE  EMBARGO,   1807-1809. 

During  the  summer  of  1807  the  tension  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  Administration  became  so 
great  that  two  war  vessels,  the  Leopard,  of  the  Brit 
ish  navy,  and  the  Chesapeake  of  the  American,  came 
to  blows  off  the  Coast  of  Virginia.  The  Chesa 
peake  was  ordered  by  the  Leopard  to  surrender  four 
deserters  from  the  English  service,  which  order  was 
not  obeyed,  and  in  a  few  moments  the  American 
ship  was  under  a  heavy  fire  and  Commodore  Bar- 
ron,  taken  by  surprise,  was  at  a  loss  how  to  defend 
himself.  After  the  loss  of  three  men  killed  and 
eighteen  wounded  he  sent  up  the  white  flag,  ordered 
all  his  men  on  deck  for  inspection  and  gave  up  all 
whom  the  enemy  claimed.  Three  negroes  and  one 
white  man  were  taken ;  the  negroes  were  put  to  work 
on  British  ships,  the  white  man  was  shot.  The 
Chesapeake  hastened  to  Norfolk  where  its  wounded 
could  get  medical  relief;  the  English  went  away 
rejoicing  in  the  belief  that  an  American  war  vessel 
was  a  useless  old  tub  and  that  American  officers 
were  struck  dumb  with  terror  at  the  sight  of  an 
English  man  of  war.1 

Macon  wrote  his  friend  Nicholson:  "Indeed  the 
attack  on  the  Chesapeake  was  war  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain.  We  must  either  repeal  the  law 
which  authorized  the  President  to  issue  the  procla 
mation  (the  Non-importation)  or  take  some  steps 
to  enforce  it."  New  Englanders  hailed  the  event 
with  secret  delight  hoping  to  see  their  bete  noire, 
Jefferson,  forced  to  give  up  his  measure  of  coercing 

i  Schouler,  vol.  II.,  166-67. 


218  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

England  incidentally  impoverishing  New  England 
traders,  especially  in  contraband  of  war.  The  Fed 
eralists,  so  insignificant  in  Washington,  were  fast 
becoming  as  potent  as  ever  in  the  East;  they  had 
retired  to  their  respective  States,  there  "to  die  in  the 
last  ditches,"  as  Jefferson's  own  followers  had  done 
in  1798-99.  And  they  were  doing  Jefferson  almost 
as  much  mischief  in  1807  as  his  followers  had  done 
Adams  in  1799;  their  rise  meant  the  undoing  of  his 
favorite  measure  for  bringing  Europe  to  terms  by 
trade  restrictions. 

The  Non-importation  bill  of  the  last  session  had 
been  a  subject  of  angry  debate,  a  subject  which  Ran 
dolph  pretended  to  make  the  cause  of  his  opposition 
to  the  President.  Non-importation  was  an  imita 
tion  of  the  Revolutionary  policy  of  coercing  Eng 
land.  Jefferson  thought,  that,  by  ceasing  to  buy 
European  manufactures  altogether  the  warring 
powers  would  find  it  to  their  interest  to  adopt  a  rea 
sonable  policy  toward  America,  that  impressment  of 
American  seamen  and  unlawful  seizure  of  American 
trading  vessels  would  be  stopped.  And  had  the 
whole  nation  acted  in  good  faith  at  the  President's 
suggestion  and  observed  strictly  the  proclamation 
which  he  had  been  authorized  to  issue,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  desired  result  would  have  been  at 
tained.  But  the  East  was  closest  to  England  geo 
graphically,  it  was  also  bound  by  family  ties  among 
the  most  influential  people,  and  the  daily  occupation 
of  the  people  was  trade  and  seafaring.  Massachu 
setts  people  drove  a  trade  nine  times  as  great  as  that 
of  Virginia;  wherever  there  was  a  sea  there  was  a 
New  England  skipper  driving  hard  bargains,  cap 
turing  African  negroes  to  be  sold  on  the  sly  in  Vir-> 
ginia  or  in  the  Carolinas,  delivering  goods  to  the 
belligerent  powers  of  Europe  without  regard  for  the 


OF  THE;  EMBARGO.  219 

rules  of  neutrals  in  war,  winning  for  Americans  the 
epithet,  "Yankees."  Men  went  out  from  Boston  or 
Newport  or  New  London  poor  and  returned  a  year 
or  two  hence  wealthy.  How  could  they  be  expected 
to  take  seriously  Jefferson's  policy  looking  to  the 
good  of  the  whole  Union  and  not  to  that  of  New 
England  alone?  The  answer  they  made  to  the 
proclamation  was  secret  overtures  to  the  English 
Premier,  Canning,  and  open  beckonings  to  Cana 
dian  governors  to  come  over  the  borders  and  have 
talks  with  their  great  men,  the  members  of  the 
Essex  Junto.  They  did  not  mean  to  be  bound  by  a 
Congress  which  sat  in  a  Southern  city  and  was 
controlled  by  Southern  men. 

Jefferson  called  Congress  together  more  than  a 
month  earlier  than  usual  in  order  to  get  the  much 
needed  help  of  that  body  in  settling  the  trying  ques 
tions  which  were  crowding  upon  his  administration. 
The  Tenth  Congress  had  been  elected  when  Jeffer 
son's  ship  of  state  was  sailing  most  smoothly  and 
when  the  Administration  was  universally  popular. 
It  was  a  Jefferson  Congress,  Randolph  excepted, 
ready  to  do  the  President's  bidding.  It  organized 
at  once,  putting  Macon's  former  rival  and  competi 
tor,  Joseph  B.  Varnum  of  Massachusetts,  in  the 
Speaker's  Chair  and  George  Washington  Campbell 
of  Tennessee  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means.  The  North  was  then  getting  back  into 
the  saddle  and  the  new  Southwest,  which  Jefferson 
always  loved  next  to  Virginia,  was  second  in  line 
of  promotion.  Virginia  and  Carolina,  the  lords  of 
the  Roanoke,  Macon  and  Randolph,  were  left  out 
altogether.  This  change  Macon  had  expected,  and 
in  order  not  to  witness  his  own  and  Randolph's 
humiliation  he  remained  at  Buck  Spring  well  nigh  a 
month  after  Congress  met — what  he  had  never  done 


220  NATHANIEI,  MACON. 

before  and  never  did  again  in  his  remaining  twenty 
years  of  service  in  Washington.  Macon  did  not 
appear  until  November  16,  and  then  it  was  sometime 
before  he  took  part  in  the  debates.  He  refused  to 
vote  December  5  on  an  appeal  from  the  ruling  of 
Speaker  Varnum,  thus  showing  his  sensitiveness. 
Yet  Macon  was  not  supersensitive  like  Randolph 
nor  did  he  allow  the  change  of  leaders  in  the  House 
to  set  him  blindly  against  the  Administration. 

One  of  the  first  measures  of  the  new  Congress  was 
one  for  arming  the  militia,  a  sort  of  reply  to  Eng 
land's  warlike  attitude.  The  whole  plan  of  the  Gov 
ernment  embraced  the  effective  organization  and 
equipment  of  the  State  troops,  the  fortification  of 
harbors  and -the  building  of  a  fleet  of  gun  boats. 
Macon  at  once  gave  hearty  and  enthusiastic  support 
to  the  part  of  the  program  which  aimed  to  improve 
the  militia.  This  was  his  favorite  means  of  de 
fense  and  in  this  way  alone  was  he  willing  to  grant 
large  sums  of  money.  "This  is  one  of  the  most 
important  questions  that  ever  came  before  this 
House,"  and  then  to  show  his  pride  in  always  speak 
ing  extempore  he  added,  "It  is  one  on  which  I  have 
not  reflected  before  coming  into  the  House  this 
morning.  As  to  the  probability  of  war,  I  may  stand 
alone  in  the  opinion  which  I  entertain;  but  I  have 
considered  that  the  nation  has  been  actually  at  war 
from  the  moment  of  the  affair  of  the  Chesapeake. 
*  *  *  The  late  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  was  as 
much  war  as  the  attack  on  Copenhagen.  And  what 
are  we  now  doing?  Are  we  not  disputing  about 
details?  *  *  *  I  think  the  public  money  should 
be  applied  to  the  best  purposes ;  no  doubt  there  will 
be  a  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  what  is  best.  We 
should  immediately  purchase  ten  or  twenty  thou 
sand  stand  of  arms  or  any  other  number  and  put 


OF  THE  EMBARGO.  221 

them  into  the  hands  of  the  States  most  exposed  to 
attack  from  sea,  which  is  particularly  necessary  at 
present,  as  the  people  on  the  seacoast  are  most  ex 
posed  to  danger."  His  friend  Alston  more  nearly 
representing  the  Administration  tried  to  convince 
Macon  and  those  who  agreed  with  him  that  war  was 
not  already  begun  and  that  wholesale  measures 
ought  not  to  be  taken.  Macon  repeated  his  former 
arguments  the  more  earnestly,  urging  the  immediate 
purchase  of  arms  and  equipments  for  the  States 
which  were  to  have  them  properly  distributed 
amongst  a  well-organized  militia.  This  plan  was 
the  more  acceptable  to  him  because  of  his  belief  in 
the  independent  sovereignty  of  the  States,  and 
because  it  would  counterbalance  the  growing  power, 
of  the  Union. 

The  second  part  of  the  program  providing  for  the 
fortification  of  harbors  and  for  the  building  of  gun 
boats,  he  opposed  with  as  much  vehemence  as  he 
had  favored  the  first  part.  During  the  preceding 
summer  we  find  him  ready  to  support  the  Admin 
istration  in  the  building  of  gun  boats  and  ready  even  ( 
to  make  terms  with  Madison  should  the  latter  be- 
elected  President.  Such  was  Macon's  real  intention 
but  he  did  not  one  time  think  of  supporting  meas 
ures  of  which  he  disapproved  simply  because  they 
were  Administration  measures.  So  the  bill  for  gun 
boats  and  harbor  fortifications  which  the  President 
was  now  urging  met  his  positive  opposition.  Jef 
ferson  had  asked  first  for  the  building  of  the  gun 
boats,  then  he  meant  to  ask  for  the  equipments  and 
finally  for  the  men  to  man  them.  Macon  opposed 
that  kind  of  legislation  by  piece-meal  and  he  asked 
for  estimates  of  the  cost  of  the  total  establishment. 
Blount  of  North  Carolina,  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 
Administration,  undertook  to  explain  the  bill  by  say- 


222  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ing*the  committee  had  another  bill  almost  ready 
which  would  empower  the  President  to  equip  and 
man  the  gun  boats.  This  shows  Jefferson's  easy 
way  of  leading  his  party  into  measures  which  if 
presented  complete  would  have  been  opposed.  It 
is  needless  to  say  Macon  voted  against  the  bill.1 
He  wrote  a  little  later:  "By  the  public  prints  you 
have  discovered  that  Congress  have  made  very  lib 
eral  appropriations  for  fortifications  and  gun  boats ; 
to  this  liberality  I  have  no  claim.  The  first  seems 
now  to  be  almost  useless  in  Europe,  and  as  to  the 
second,  we  ought  to  have  a  little  more  experience 
before  we  adopt  it  as  a  measure  of  defence."2  How 
our  ports  were  to  be  defended  he  did  not  attempt 
to  say,  and  his  opposition  does  him  little  credit  since 
he  suggests  no  remedy  whatever.  When  the  bill 
to  which  Blount  referred  came  up  for  discussion, 
Macon  maintained  his  opposition  first  on  the  ground 
of  his  life-long  opposition  to  all  naval  armaments, 
and  second,  because  the  measure  proposed  to  give 
the  President  discretionary  powers  for  raising  a  ma 
rine  corps :  "I  am  opposed  to  giving  to  the  Presi 
dent  the  power  of  raising  an  army  of  marine,  or  of 
any  description  whatever.  This  discretion  is  what 
I  have  always  thought  wrong;  and  no  argument 
ever  convinced  my  mind  to  the  contrary."3  The  bill 
finally  passed,  Macon  voting  with  a  minority  of  ten 
against  one  hundred  and  eight.  Richard  Stanford 
of  North  Carolina  and  John  Randolph  also  voted 
with  the  little  group  of  opponents. 

North  Carolina's  delegation  in  this  Congress  was 
scarcely  more  brilliant  than  that  of  1795-^97,  when 
Macon  first  began  to  lead.  Willis  Alston  was  its 
ablest  member  after  Macon.  Thomas  Blount, 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  xoth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  1171. 

2  Letter  to  John  Steele,  January  10,  1808. 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,ist  Sess.,  1498. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  EMBARGO.  223 

Thomas  Kenan  and  erratic  Lemuel  Sawyer  were 
the  Eastern  representatives.  Evan  Alexander  from 
Mecklenburg  was  there,  and  Richard  Stanford,  Ran 
dolph's  friend,  and  Meshack  Franklin,  brother  of 
the  Governor,  both  of  whom  our  historian,  Wheeler, 
did  not  know,  represented  the  middle  West.  Dun 
can  MacFarland,  the  perpetual  candidate  in  North 
Carolina  of  that  day,  was  knocking  at  the  door  of  the 
House  in  the  form  of  a  contest  for  John  Culpeper  s 
seat.  Culpeper  had  gone  in  by  a  close  vote  in  the 
Fayetteville  district,  and  MacFarland,  Federalist, 
was  ready  to  contest  the  election.  The  House  com 
mittee  on  elections  declared  the  seat  vacant  and 
called  on  the  Governor  to  issue  writs  for  a  new 
election,  which  was  done,  and  Culpeper  was 
returned  by  a  safe  majority,  though  he  seems  never 
to  have  done  anything  except  in  a  religious  way. 
Culpeper  was  a  Baptist  preacher  in  a  Presbyterian 
section,  was  elected  to  the  State  legislature  and  was 
declared  ineligible  because  of  his  being  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel.  He  was  returned  to  Congress  sev 
eral  times  in  later  years,  thus  gaining  in  the  Nation 
what  was  not  allowed  him  in  the  State.  This  was 
MacFarland's  last  fiasco  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  There  was  no  leader  of  the  delegation, 
most  of  its  members,  however,  were  strict  adher 
ents  to  the  Administration  and  left  Macon  and  Stan 
ford  alone  in  their  independence. 

After  the  passage  of  the  militia  and  gun-boat  bill 
Congress  took  up  seriously  the  President's  plan  of 
trade  retaliation  against  England.  Ten  years  before 
Jefferson  had  formulated  a  plan  which  he  thought, 
if  it  could  only  be  put  into  effect,  would  render 
war  obsolete  in  America.  It  was  at  the  time  when 
he  was  wishing  that  an  ocean  of  fire  separated 
America  from  Europe  that  he  first  came  to  believe 


224  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

in  an  embargo  as  a  substitute  for  war.  Now 
he  was  President  and  an  overwhelming  majority  in 
both  Houses  of  Congress  did  his  bidding  and  Eng 
land  still  persisted  in  insulting  American  naval  offi 
cers  by  searching  their  ships  for  deserters,  or  im 
pressing  their  sailors  because  they  could  not  at  all 
times  furnish  written  proof  of  their  citizenship,  or, 
simply  because  they  spoke  English.  Was  it  not  the 
best  time  imaginable  to  try  the  virtues  of  such  a 
beneficial  policy  ?  The  provocation  was  there,  Eng 
lish  war  vessels  were  actually  chasing  American  sea 
men  from  their  ships  in  our  very  harbors.  The 
plan  was  resolved  upon;  embargo  should  follow 
Non-importation  and  England  was  to  feel  the  effect 
of  famine  prices,  to  see  her  factories  closed  for  the 
want  of  raw  material,  while  at  the  same  time  her 
store  houses  were  filled  to  overflowing  with  unsala 
ble  manufactures.  Our  ships  were  to  keep  close 
in  the  harbors  or  high  up  the  rivers,  no  foreign 
trader  was  to  depart  without  special  orders  from  the 
President  on  pain  of  confiscation ;  the  coast  traders 
were  to  dart  in  and  out  from  harbor  to  harbor  like 
spring  chickens  dodging  a  hawk.  Ship-owners  and 
traders  were  to  be  fined  twice  the  value  of  each  ship 
if  found  violating  the  provisions  of  the  proposed  law 
and  all  the  forces  of  the  army  and  navy  were  to  be 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Executive  for  its  effec 
tive  enforcement.1  In  a  few  days  the  embargo  was 
before  Congress  and  within  four  days  it  became  a 
law  with  all  the  clauses  necessary  for  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  ideas  pointed  out  above.  Never  did  a 
President  have  his  wishes  more  speedily  complied 
with.  The  embargo  was  an  experiment  and  a  rea 
sonable  one ;  there  was  no  ground  for  doubting  that 
it  would  bring  England  to  terms  if  it  were  enforced 
strictly  everywhere  for  one  or  two  years.  Warring 

See  Act  of  January  9,  1808— Annals  of  Congress,  passim. 


OF  THE;  EMBARGO.  225 

Europe  was  in  need  of  supplies  which  America 
chiefly  furnished.  But,  as  already  said,  the  enforce 
ment  was  the  question  and  many  doubted  the  ability 
of  the  government  to  enforce  a  law  which  required 
large  numbers  of  wealthy  men  to  close  up  their  busi 
ness.1  The  law  went  into  effect  at  once  and  com 
plaints  and  petitions  began  to  pour  in  upon  the 
President  and  Congress. 

Macon  approved  of  the  embargo  especially  since 
it  would  render  increase  of  the  navy  unnecessary; 
Randolph  at  first  favored  but  finally  opposed  it. 
But  the  plan  was  in  full  accord  with  the  political 
principles  of  both  Randolph  and  Macon.2 

Evasion  of  the  law  became  general  at  once  in  the 
maritime  States  and  England  lent  her  assistance. 
Canada  was  made  a  dumping  ground  for  New  Eng 
land  merchants.  On  Lake  Champlain  New  England 
traders  defied  the  officers  of  the  United  States  and 
carried  their  goods  in  triumph  past  the  custom 
houses.  Prosecutions  for  violation  of  law  proved 
abortive,  because  the  juries  were  all  against  it;  the 
President's  authority  was  made  ridiculous  from  the 
Hudson  to  St.  Croix.  Under  such  circumstances 
England  not  only  refused  to  sue  for  peace,  but 
became  more  arrogant  as  New  England  became 
more  violent.3  France,  too,  against  which  the 
embargo  was  also  directed,  refused  to  give  any 
serious  attention  to  a  policy  which  was  not  enforced 
at  home  and  which  therefore  had  no  serious  influ 
ence  on  the  French  food  supply.  All  through  the 
first  session  of  the  Tenth  Congress,  that  is,  in  1807- 
1808,  the  Administration  was  bolstering  up  its 
unpopular  law  in  order  to  make  it  effective  and  thus 

1  See  Schouler  II.,  180-185. 

2  Garland's  Life  of  Randolph,  I.,  266-'6y. 

3  See  Hart's  Formation  of  the  Union, 

15 


226  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

to  bring  foreign  powers  to  some  kind  of  terms,  but 
it  was  all  in  vain.  Macon  remained  firm  in  his 
support  o£  the  bill  even  though  it  brought  immedi 
ate  loss  to  him  as  a  tobacco  grower.  He  claimed 
with  Randolph  that  it  only  required  a  steady  adher 
ence  to  the  policy  to  bring  about  the  desired  effect 
and  he  blamed  bitterly  the  Eastern  men  for  practi 
cally  annulling  a  law  of  the  Union — that  Union 
which  they  had  loved  and  adored  so  much  in  1798. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  session,  the  Administration, 
becoming  more  apprehensive  of  war,  called  on  Con 
gress  for  an  increase  of  the  army  by  6,000  men. 
Macon  recognized  the  need  of  a  stronger  force  and 
decided  in  the  beginning  to  give  the  President  his 
support.  He  wrote  Nicholson,1  *  *  *  "Our  situa 
tion  is  every  day  growing  worse  and  it  seems  to  me 
that  we  must  prepare  for  the  last  reasoning  of  na 
tions  or  rather  of  governments,  and  in  this  situation 
we  must  raise  a  few  troops  for  some  defenceless 
places."  Macon  expected  Randolph  would  oppose  the 
bill  and  said  as  much  in  this  letter,  explaining  at  the 
same  time  his  own  attitude :  "Randolph  will,  I 
expect,  oppose  the  bill  for  raising  6,000  men,  so 
that  he  and  myself  will  split  on  the  question.  You 
remember  that  two  years  ago  we  split  on  the  same 
question  for  raising  troops,  he  for,  and  myself 
against."  On  the  same  day  that  this  was  written 
he  felt  constrained  to  explain  his  vote  and  to  show 
why  he  reversed  his  lifetime  policy  with,  regard  to 
this  subject.  Randolph  had  alluded  to  the  attitude 
of  the  Republicans  in  1798  and  hinted  at  Macon's 
inconsistency.  "There  is  no  analogy,"  said  Macon, 
"between  the  present  crisis  and  that  of  1798,  *  : 
then  we  seemed  to  try  to  provoke  a  war — in  fact 
were  the  attacking  party;  now  we  have  been 
attacked.  The  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  is  not  dis- 

i  Macon  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  April  4,  1808. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  EMBARGO.  227 

puted.  Notwithstanding  this,  I  do  not  believe  that 
we  shall  have  any  serious  invasion ;  yet  it  is  certainly 
probable  after  what  has  taken  place,  that  attempts 
may  be  made  to  attack  some  of  our  towns,  for  the 
purpose  of  laying  contributions  on  them.  Under 
this  impression  I  shall  act."  He  continued  in  a 
rather  long  speech  justifying  his  actions,  though 
with  some  difficulty  from  his  point  of  view.  He 
drew  the  distinction  between  the  present  plan  and 
former  ones,  saying:  "I  do  not  consider  the  troops 
to  be  raised  intended  for  a  Peace  Establishment. 
If  I  did,  I  should  not  vote  for  the  bill.  *  *  *  It  has 
been  said  there  would  be  great  difficulty  in  getting 
the  men.  This  will  in  some  measure  depend  on  the 
proper  selection  of  officers ;  but  be  this  as  it  may, 
notwithstanding  I  am  in  favor  of  the  bill,  I  feel  no 
reluctance  in  saying,  that  I  believe  it  is  almost  as 
difficult  to  get  clear  of  a  Military  Peace  Establish 
ment,  as  it  is  to  enlist  the  privates  for  the  estab 
lishment.  *  *  *  I  have  heard  to-day,  and  at  former 
times,  a  maxim  boldly  advanced,  which  to  me  never 
appeared  correct  or  true ;  that  to  preserve  peace  you 
must  be  prepared  for  war.  In  all  countries,  espe 
cially  those  which  are  free,  the  thirst  for  military 
fame  is  greater  than  that  for  civil,  and  if  it  gets  a 
complete  ascendency,  is  extremely  difficult  to  allay. 
It  may  be  observed,  that  our  country  is  not  exempt 
from  this  passion  which  has  done  so  much  injury 
to  the  human  race.  We  seem  to  admire  the  heroic 
actions  of  our  young  men,  more  than  we  do  the  civil 
virtues  of  Franklin,  Hancock,  Adams,  and  Dickin 
son;  though  it  would  be  no  easy  question  to  decide 
whether  Washington  was  a  greater  civil  or  a  mili 
tary  character,  yet  his  military  character  is  that 
which  I  believe  gives  the  nation  the  most  delight."1 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  vol.  II.,  i934-'s8. 


228  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

Macon  was  in  fact  inconsistent  with  many  of  his 
former  professions  but  not  inconsistent  with  his 
Republican  creed.  The  army  increase  was  neces 
sary  ;  Gallatin,  his  best  friend  in  the  Administration, 
was  in  favor  of  it.  Ample  assurance  was  given  that 
these  new  troops  would  be  disbanded  when  the 
danger  was  passed  and  so  it  was  Randolph,  not 
Macon,  who  was  open  to  criticism  from  his  party. 

It  was  during  this  session  that  Macon  and  Ran 
dolph  were  oftenest  found  disagreeing,  and  it  is 
not  a  little  amusing  to  see  how  each  tried  to  explain 
to  the  other  the  cause  of  his  opposing  vote.  Macon 
speaks  "with  respect"  when  he  finds  himself  not  in 
accord  with  his  friend,  and  Randolph  with  many 
compliments  to  his  "worthy  and  much  respected" 
friend  from  North  Carolina.  Fair  examples  of  their 
references  are  as  follows :  Macon :  "I  should  not 
have  spoken  on  this  subject,  had  not  allusions  been 
made  by  a  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Randolph) 
to  what  had  been  done  in  the  year  1795 — a  gentle 
man  whom  I  much  respect  and  who,  I  believe,  per 
fectly  reciprocates  my  respect.  A  sincere  desire  to 
retain  this  respect  induces  me  to  speak."  Randolph : 
"My  worthy  friend  from  North  Carolina,  whose 
dissent  from  my  opinion  would  have  caused  me  to 
distrust  it  if  I  had  not  conceived  that  his  own 
speech  in  favor  of  the  army  was  one  of  the  most 
masterly  arguments  against  it";  and  again,  "I  feel 
the  deepest  concern  whenever  I  differ  with  the  gen 
tleman  in  question,  and  nothing  but  the  impulse  of 
honest  duty,  knowing  as  I  did  of  the  difference 
which  existed  between  us  on  the  subject,  could  have 
prevailed  upon  me  to  rise  yesterday.  I  say,  it  is  a 
matter  of  surprise  and  regret  to  me  that  he  should 
support  this  bill ;  that  he  should  declare  the  present 
establishment  useless,  and,  at  the  same  time,  declare 


OF  THE  EMBARGO.  229 

his  willingness  to  increase  it  threefold.  I  hope  the 
gentleman  will  pardon  me  for  taking  this  notice  of 
his  arguments."1  It  appeared  at  times  as  if  they 
would  fall  into  each  other's  arms  and  weep.  Con 
gress  must  have  been  amused  at  the  Damon  and 
Pythias  exhibitions  of  this  session  and  certainly  the 
close-trading  New  Englanders  enjoyed  seeing  their 
enemies  undo  each  other's  speeches  and  votes. 
Whatever  the  other  members  thought,  Randolph  and 
Macon  were  sincere  friends,  neither  of  whom  had 
sufficient  sense  of  humor  to  appreciate  the  ridicu 
lous  figure  they  made  in  their  declarations  of  love 
before  the  House. 

During  this  session  of  Congress  several  questions 
arose  and  were  determined  in  a  way  very  interesting 
to  us.  The  capital  was  about  to  be  removed  from 
Washington  back  to  Philadelphia.  Northern  mem 
bers  complained  at  the  poor  conveniences  for  living 
in  the  little  city  on  the  Potomac.  Macon  responded  : 
"It  is  possible  you  might  live  better  in  Philadelphia 
than  here,  but  not  cheaper.  If  we  should  move  I 
should  be  opposed  to  going  to  any  large  city.  *  *  * 
There  is  scarce  any  other  place  in  the  United  States 
to  which  I  had  not  rather  go  than  to  Philadelphia — 
I  had  rather  go  to  Frederickstown,  Hagerstown  or 
Winchester.  We  may  talk  about  our  independence, 
but  every  man  in  Congress,  when  at  Philadelphia, 
knew  that  city  had  more  than  its  proportionate 
weight  in  the  representation  of  the  Union.  Go  to 
any  city  and  the  same  influence  will  be  experienced. 
Do  gentlemen  recollect  what  was  the  state  of  the 
public  mind  there  during  the  years  1797  and  1798 — 
the  time  when  the  name  of  Republican  and  Demo 
crat  was  accounted  a  disgrace?  There  are  gentle 
men  in  my  hearing  who  were  then  associated  with 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  vol.  II.,  1952, 


230  NATHANIEI,  MACON. 

me  in  legislation,  and  who  know  and  will  attest  the 
truth  of  what  I  say,  that  we  were  shunned  as  a  pes 
tilence — the  yellow  fever  could  not  have  been  more 
carefully  avoided.  I  do  not  mention  this  as  a  reflec 
tion  on  the  Administration,  but  as  an  evidence  of 
what  may  be  expected  in  large  cities.  We  may  do 
very  well  in  peaceable  times,  but  come  to  the  times 
which  try  men's  souls,  and  we  shall  have  to  desert 
them  for  Princeton  or  some  other  convenient  vil 
lage."1  And  a  little  further  on  he  gives  another 
reason  which  caused  him  to  oppose  removal  to  Phil 
adelphia  and  it  was  equivalent  to  a  formal  announce 
ment  of  his  policy:  "The  charter  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  expires  in  1811.  In  1809,  it  is 
proposed  we  shall  be  in  Philadelphia.  We  shall 
then  have  two  years  before  to  talk  and  be  talked  to 
about  this  bank.  If  we  must  remove,  let  us  go  over 
the  Alleghanies.  *  These  large  cities  have 

always  had  too  much  influence  in  this  body;  go 
among  them  and  it  will  be  increased  a  hundred 
fold."  Dislike  of  cities,  a  fear  of  their  riotous 
behavior  during  national  crises,  hatred  for  their 
snobbish  ways  and  positive  opposition  to  the 
National  Bank  in  Philadelphia  were  the  controlling 
motives  with  him  on  this  subject.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  he  could  not  forget  the  hatred  of  Philadel 
phia  for  himself  and  party,  how  Jefferson  had  been 
avoided  there  in  1798  as  though  he  were  a  public 
enemy,  how  McPherson's  Band  of  musicians  played 
the  rogue's  march  at  the  doors  of  himself  and  friends 
in  1798  because  fashionable  life  in  Philadelphia 
detested  theii  politics.2  He  was  not  alone  in  hi* 
opinion  that  a  great  city  is  no  place  for  the  capital 
of  a  republic.  Adams,  the  best  of  Federalists,  said 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  roth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  vol.  II.,    340. 
2  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  vol  II.,  1562. 


REPEAL  01?  THE  EMBARGO.  231 

there  was  danger  in  a  big  city.  Jefferson  was  of 
like  opinion. 

Another  subject  came  up  several  times  and  its 
treatment  shows  the  whole  Democratic  party  had 
come  to  hold  unfriendly  opinions  toward  the 
Supreme  Court.  It  was  proposed  now  by  Massa 
chusetts  men  that  the  Judges  be  removed  on  peti 
tion  of  both  Houses  of  Congress.  This,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  been  Randolph's  plan  some  three  years 
before.  There  must  have  been  general  fear  of  the 
encroachments  of  the  Court  under  the  strong  hand 
of  John  Marshall,  else  both  wings  of  the  great 
Democratic  party  would  scarce  have  come  over  to 
Randolph's  apparently  partisan  and  personal  policy. 
Senators,  too,  it  was  proposed  by  the  Virginia  legis 
lature  to  Congress,  should  be  removable  by  a 
majority  vote  of  their  respective  State  Assemblies.1 
Republicanism  was  growing  stronger  and  so  it 
desired  to  lop  off  all  the  aristocratic  features  of  the 
government.  There  was  to  be  only  one  supreme 
body,  Congress,  and  that  was  to  be  subject  to  bi 
ennial  elections,  i.  e.,  the  people  were  the  real  sov 
ereigns  and  they  must  so  be  recognized.  Men  were 
getting  as  far  from  Hamilton's  ideals  as  possible; 
Jefferson's  were  in  full  ascendency  notwithstanding 
the  "family  quarrel"  and  the  ominous  growls  in  the 
East. 

The  engineering  and  wire-pulling  relative  to  the 
successorship  to  the  presidency  were  so  much  in 
evidence  this  session  that  Macon  thought  the  public 
interests  as  well  as  the  characters  of  public  leaders 
were  suffering.  Between  Madison,  Monroe,  Clin 
ton  and  Gallatin  he  was  at  no  loss  for  whom  to 
vote;  but  with  Gallatin's  name  stricken  from  the 
list  of  availables  he  knew  not  where  to  place  his 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  ist  Sesi».,  vol.  II.,  i6i5-'96. 


232  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

influence.  "When  great  men,  so-called,  agree  in 
general  principles,  or  in  other  words,  when  the  men 
held  up  for  the  next  President  are  of  the  same 
political  party,  is  it  worth  while  for  little  men,  so- 
called,  to  take  great  concern  which  of  these  shall  fill 
the  office  or  the  Great  House?  *  *  *  The  Clin- 
tonians  evidently  are  on  the  Monroe  side.  .  In  re 
flecting  on  this  subject  I  have  been  inclined  to  an 
opinion,  that  the  great,  so-called,  might  as  well  take 
care  of  themselves  and  their  characters  as  those  who 
are  not  so-called.  When  a  principle  is  involved  in 
the  election  of  a  particular  man,  it  is  then  quite  a 
different  question;  where  men  of  the  same  princi 
ples  are  candidates  for  the  same  office  it  looks  much 
like  a  contest  for  the  loaves  and  fishes.  *  *  *  But 
with  us  there  may  be  another  cause  for  supporting 
candidates  with  the  same  principles,  this  is  State 
prejudice  or  partiality,  to  which  may  be  added  the 
general  unwillingness  of  great  States  to  have  either 
P.  or  V.-P.  from  small  States."  Then  showing  his 
appreciation  of  the  rising  tide  of  opposition  from 
New  England  and  commercial  centres  generally  to 
the  embargo  laws,  he  concluded :  "I  suspect  we  shall 
have  a  dust  raised  in  the  House  before  the  adjourn 
ment  ;  *  *  *  ^  seems  to  me  there  must  be  an  explo 
sion  before  we  part.  Too  much  heat  has  been  col 
lected  since  we  have  been  reading  and  not  speaking 
to  be  suffered  to  pass  quietly  away."1  And  six  days 
later  he  again  wrote  his  friend:  "Yours  of  the  2d 
instant  was  last  night  received,  the  opinion  men 
tioned  by  you  as  given  by  some  federalists  is  the 
universal  doctrine  of  that  party  and  I  fear  that  some 
[Madison]  of  another  party  are  not  very  different 
in  their  sentiments ;  but  our  situation  is  every  day 
growing  worse  and  it  seems  to  me  that  we  must 

1  To  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  March  29,  1808. 


REPEAL  OF  THE  EMBARGO.  233 

prepare  for  the  last  reasoning  of  nations  or  rather 
of  governments.  *  *  *  We  must  either  repeal  the 
law  which  authorized  the  President  to  issue  the 
proclamation  or  to  take  some  steps  to  enforce  it."1 
Thus  the  idea  of  repealing  the  embargo  came  to 
him  within  four  months  from  its  passage.  In  April, 
1808,  our  choice  in  foreign  policy  was  restricted 
either  to  rigid  enforcement  of  the  embargo  or  a  dec 
laration  of  war.  And  he  made  up  his  mind,  as  we 
shall  see,  for  the  former. 

Macon's  attitude  toward  the  coming  campaign 
was  painfully  uncertain.  Again  and  again  he  was 
approached  by  the  warring  factions  and  again  and 
again  he  refused  each  any  assurance  of  his  support. 
And  his  influence  was  important;  the  weight  of 
North  Carolina's  vote  would  go  according  to  his 
suggestion.  That  he  was  himself  much  at  sea  and 
out  of  touch  with  both  parties  at  this  time  is  shown 
by  the  following  letter:  "I  am  not  in  the  secrets  of 
any  one  here,  no  not  one ;  all,  all,  except  myself,  are 
engaged  in  making  Presidents.  And  you  (Nichol 
son)  know  enough  of  public  life  to  know  that  in 
great  election  contests,  he  that  does  not  take  an  ac 
tive  part  on  one  side  or  the  other,  is  generally  hated 
by  both,  and  always  suspected  by  both,  no  matter 
how  honest  his  indifference  or  how  sincerely  he  may 
believe  the  contest  a  matter  of  no  consequence." 
And  coming  again  to  his  old  favorite,  Gallatin,  he 
adds,  "or  how  willing  he  may  be  to  support  one, 
whom  he  would  prefer  to  either  of  those  named, 
and  one  whom  he  thought  better  qualified  in  every 
respect  for  the  appointment,  but  whom  neither  of 
the  parties  would  take,  not  because  he  is  unfit."2 

While  the  embargo  was  beginning  to  go  into 
effect,  Pickering,  the  former  Secretary  of  State, 

i  Jos.H.  Nicholson,  March  29,  1808  ;  compare  letter  of  April  4,  p.  226. 
*  To  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  April  6,  1808. 


234  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

and  George  Cabot  announced  to  New  England  their 
program  of  opposition  which  called  for  concerted 
action  of  all  the  commercial  States  against  the 
Administration.  Cabot  declared  "our  best  citizens 
consider  the  interests  of  the  United  States  inter 
woven  with  those  of  Great  Britain,  and  that  our 
safety  depends  on  hers."  Rufus  King,  Hamilton's 
friend  in  the  Miranda  scheme,  joined  the  New  Eng 
land  malcontents,  all  of  whom  now  entered  into  a 
close  league  with  each  other  and  opened  correspond 
ence  with  the  representatives  of  Great  Britain  rela 
tive  to  concerted  action  between  Old  and  New  Eng 
land  against  Jefferson  and  his  Southerners.1  This 
opposition  found  public  expression  in  all  the  New 
England  papers  and  so  impressed  the  Executive 
that  Campbell  as  Chairman  of  the  committee  on 
Ways  and  Means  recommended  to  Congress,  April 
12,  a  measure  looking  to  the  suspension  of  the 
embargo  during  the  coming  vacation  in  case  the 
President  deemed  it  necessary.  Crowningshield  of 
Massachusetss  made  his  last  speech  in  favor  of  the 
new  resolution  hoping  that  pressure  could  be 
brought  to  bear  from  his  section  sufficient  to  compel 
Jefferson  to  yield.  The  opportunity  was  too  tempt 
ing  to  Randolph  for  him  not  to  chastise  the  Admin 
istration  with  his  unmerciful  invective  and  sarcasm. 
Macon  contented  himself  with  voting  against  the 
proposition  on  the  ground  that  it  would  place  too 
much  power  in  the  President's  hands.2  He  had 
always  voted  against  the  granting  of  such  powers 
even  in  the  case  of  Washington  in  the  crisis  of 
I793-  The  Administration  prevailed,  and  the  act 
conferring  on  the  President  the  power  to  suspend  the 
embargo  passed  April  21.  But  Jefferson  was  not 
desirous  of  using  plenary  powers  in  these  trying 

1  Schouler,  II.,  202-03. 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  vol.  II.,  2243-44. 


OF  THE  EMBARGO.  235 

times  and  so  he  recommended  an  early  reassembling 
of  Congress. 

A's  was  anticipated  the  first  proposition  brought 
before  Congress  at  the  next  sesion,  which  began 
November  7,  with  almost  every  member  present,  was 
one  for  immediately  repealing  the  embargo.  The 
East,  not  strong  in  numbers,  was  determined  in 
aspect  and  speech-making.  Madison,  whose  elec 
tion  was  already  a  certainty,  had  agreed  to  take  up 
the  President's  burden  but  he  was  not  as  yet  wil 
ling  to  repeal  the  law.  Campbell  made  a  long  report 
but  was  unable  to  unite  the  House  on  any  measure. 
Then  Gallatin,  Madison  and  Macon  put  their  heads 
together  with  the  result  that  Macon  introduced  a 
series  of  resolutions  on  November  17.  These  were 
as  follows : 

i.  "That  the  committee  appointed  on  that  part  of 
the  President's  message  which  relates  to  our  foreign 
relations,  be  instructed  to  inquire  into  the  expedi 
ency  of  excluding  by  law  from  the  ports,  harbors  and 
waters  of  the  United  States  all  armed  ships  and  ves 
sels  belonging  to  any  of  the  belligerent  powers  hav 
ing  in  force  orders  or  decrees  violating  the  lawful 
commerce  of  the  United  States  as  a  nation. 

2..  "That  the  same  be  instructed  to  inquire  into 
the  expediency  of  prohibiting  by  law  the  admission 
into  the  ports,  harbors,  and  waters  of  the  United 
States,  any  ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  or  coming 
from  any  place  in  the  possession  of  any  of  the  above 
mentioned  po\\ers,  and  also  the  importation  of  any 
goods,  wares  and  merchandise,  the  growth,  produce 
and  manufactures  of  the  dominions  of  any  of  the 
said  powers. 

3.  "That  the  same  committee  be  instructed  to 
inquire  into  the  expediency  of  amending  the  act 
laying  an  embargo,  and  the  several  acts  supple 
mentary  and  additional  thereto." 


236  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

When  introducing  these  resolutions  Macon  de 
clared  that  America  should  enforce  to  the  letter  the 
whole  embargo  system.  "Has  the  love  of  gain 
superseded  every  other  motive  in  the  breasts  of 
Americans?  Shall  the  majority  govern,  or  shall  a 
few  wicked  and  abandoned  men  drive  this  nation 
from  the  ground  it  has  taken?  Is  it  come  to  this 
that  a  law  constitutionally  enacted,  even  after  a  for 
mal  decision  in  favor  of  its  constitutionality,  can  not 
be  enforced  ?  Shall  a  nation  give  way  to  the  oppo 
sition  of  a  few,  and  those  the  most  profligate  part 
of  the  community?  *  *  *  Just  as  our  measure  is 
beginning  to  operate,  just  as  provisions  are  becom 
ing  scarce  in  the  West  Indies  and  elsewhere,  not 
withstanding  the  evasion  of  our  law,  we  are  called 
upon  to  repeal  it."  Then,  reviewing  the  latest  proc 
lamation  of  England  against  neutral  commerce,  he 
said:  "This  proclamation  then  tells  our  citizens, 
'Evade  the  laws  of  your  country,  and  we  will  receive 
and  protect  you.'  If  the  mad  Powers  of  Europe 
had  entered  into  a  compact  to  injure  us  as  much 
as  they  could,  they  could  not  have  taken  a  more 
direct  course  to  it.  I  consider  them  both  (France 
and  England)  alike,  and  the  measures  I  would  take 
would  place  them  both  on  the  same  footing.  I 
have  thought  proper  to  bring  forward  all  these 
resolutions  together  to  show  my  own  opinion  on 
what  ought  to  be  done.  *  *  *  I  believe  the  em 
bargo  was  right;  that  it  was  right  to  pass  laws  to 
enforce  it.  And  believing  this,  I  feel  no  hesitation 
in  avowing  it.  Time  has  been  when  the  improve 
ment  of  our  seamen  was  cried  out  against  by  a 
farge  majority  of  Congress.  Now  the  cry  is,  that 
we  will  not  let  them  go  out  and  be  taken,  for  if  they 
go  out  they  must  be  taken.  Neither  of  the  two 
great  Powers  of  Europe  have  shown  the  least  dis- 


OF  THE  EMBARGO.  237 

position  to  relax  their  measures;  neither,  I  hope, 
shall  we.  I  believe  we  have  but  three  alternatives, 
waY,  embargo  or  submission.  The  last  I  discard ; 
*  *  *  then  the  only  question  is,  whether  in  the 
present  state  of  the  world,  the  embargo  or  war  is 
the  best  for  us.  *  *  *  I  am  for  the  embargo  yet." 
And  in  answer  to  the  statement  that  the  embargo 
was  not  burdensome  to  the  South,  he  said,  "The 
country  in  which  I  live  feels  the  measure  as  much 
as  any;  they  are  agriculturists,  and  their  crops 
remain  unsold;  and  they  will  do  without  the  prin 
cipal,  and  resist  imposition  by  withholding  their 
produce ;  those  who  make  a  profit  by  the  freight  of 
our  produce  may  afford  to  lose  that  profit."1 

Josiah  Quincy  replied  to  Macon:  "Is  this  House 
touched  with  that  insanity  which  is  the  never-fail 
ing  precursor  of  the  intention  of  Heaven  to  destroy  ? 
Are  the  people  of  New  England,  after  eleven  months 
of  deprivation  of  the  ocean,  to  be  commanded  still 
longer  to  abandon  it  for  an  undefined  period,  to 
hold  their  unalienable  rights,  at  the  tenure  of  Brit 
ain  or  Bonaparte,  a  people,  commercial  in  all  re 
spects,  in  all  their  relations,  in  all  their  recollections 
of  the  past,  in  all  their  prospects  of  the  future— a 
people,  whose  first  love  was  the  ocean,  the  choice 
of  their  childhood,  the  approbation  of  their  manly 
years,  the  most  precious  inheritance  of  their  fathers, 
"et  cetera,  *  *  *  I  am  lost  in  astonishment,  Mr. 
Chairman.  I  have  not  words  to  express  the  match 
less  absurdity  of  this  attempt.  I  have  no  tongue  to 
express  the  swift  and  headlong  destruction  which  a 
blind  perseverance  in  such  a  system  must  bring 
upon  the  nation.  The  gentleman  from  North  Caro 
lina  exclaimed  the  other  day,  in  a  strain  of  patriotic 
ardor,  'What,  shall  not  our  laws  be  executed  ?  Shall 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  497-99. 


238  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

their  authority  be  defied  ?  I  am  for  enforcing  them 
at  every  hazard.'  I  honor  that  gentleman's  zeal; 
and  I  mean  no  deviation  from  that  true  respect  I 
entertain  for  him  when  I  tell  him  that  in  this  in 
stance  his  zeal  is  not  in  accordance  with  his  knowl 
edge.  I  ask  this  House,  is  there  no  control  to  its 
authority,  is  there  no  limit  to  the  power  of  this  Na 
tional  Legislature?  I  hope  I  shall  offend  no  man 
when  I  intimate  that  two  limits  exist:  Nature  and 
the  Constitution.  *  *  *  Suppose  some  one,  in 
1788,  in  the  Convention  of  Massachusetts,  while 
debating  upon  the  adoption  of  this  Constitution,  and 
with  an  eye  looking  deep  into  futurity,  with  a  pro 
phet's  ken,  had  thus  addressed  the  Assembly :  'Fel 
low  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  to  what  ruin  are  you 
hastening?'  *  *  *  Sir,  does  any  man  believe 
that,  with  such  a  prospect  into  futurity,  the  people 
of  that  State  would  have  for  one  moment  listened  to 
its  adoption?"1  This  was  returning  Macon's  own 
argument  against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  of 
1798;  the  situation  was  reversed  exactly,  and  the 
representatives  of  Massachusetts  were  ready  to  draw 
their  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions — to  make 
solemn  protest  in  the  name  of  their  sovereign  State. 
The  Macon  resolutions  of  November  17  were 
given  the  form  of  a  bill,  and  he  made  a  very  long 
speech  in  its  favor  on  December  3,  and  on  this  occa 
sion  he  waxes  eloquent  in  his  advocacy  of  the  bill. 
"We  have  not  Hannibal  at  the  gate;  but  Rome  and 
Carthage  have  both  declared  against  us.  *  *  * 
I  am  now  willing,  and  always  willing,  to  go  as  far 
as  any  member  of  the  House  in  the  protection  of  the 
trade  which  fairly  grew  out  of  the  agriculture  and 
fisheries  of  the  United  States.  I  never  will  consent 
to  risk  the  best  interests  of  the  nation  for  a  trade 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  537-545. 


OF  THE  EMBARGO.  239 

which  we  can  carry  on  only  when  Europe  is  at  war." 
New  England  had  no  just  cause  of  complaint.  "Be 
fore  the  war  tobacco  was  ten  dollars  a  hundred  at 
Petersburg,  in  Virginia,  and  in  great  demand;  and 
before  the  war  ended  it  was  less  than  three  dollars 
at  the  same  place,  and  not  in  demand,"  which,  he 
maintained,  was  evidence  enough  that  his  section 
was  suffering  as  much  from  the  embargo  as  any 
other.  It  is  well  known,  says  Schouler,  that  Jeffer 
son's  final  bankruptcy  was  set  in  motion  by  the 
very  laws  which  he  recommended  as  the  best  for  the 
whole  country.  Macon  suffered  fully  as  much  rel 
atively.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Macon  began  earn 
estly  to  exhort  members  of  Congress  that  to  main 
tain  the  Union  as  inviolable  was  our  only  means  of 
safety.  "It  appears  to  me  that  there  never  was  a 
time  in  which  it  was  more  necessary  than  the  pres 
ent,  practically  to  observe  one  of  the  admonitions 
printed  on  the  old  Continental  money — United  we 
stand,  divided  we  fall.  Nothing  but  a  strict  atten 
tion  to  this  can  secure  our  rights ;  it  will,  as  form 
erly,  secure  to  us  all  that  we  ought  in  justice  to 
expect."1 

On  the  following  day,  i.  e.}  December  4,  1808, 
Macon  wrote  Nicholson :  "The  war  men  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  are,  I  conceive,  gaining 
strength,  and  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  we  should 
not  be  at  war  with  both  Great  Britain  and  France 
before  the  4th  March.  Gallatin  is  most  decidedly 
for  war,  and  T  think  the  Vice-President  and  W.  C. 
Nicholas  are  of  the  same  opinion.  It  is  said  that 
the  President  gives  no  opinion  as  to  the  measure 
that  ought  to  be  adopted ;  it  is  not  known  whether  he 
be  for  war  or  for  peace.  It  is  reported  that  Mr. 
Madison  is  for  the  plan  which  I  have  submitted,  with 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  loth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  669-674. 


240  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

the  addition  of  high  protecting  duties  to  encourage 
the  manufactures  of  the  U.  S.  I  am  as  much 
against  war  as  Gallatin  is  in  favor  of  it ;  then  I  have 
continued  in  Congress  till  there  is  not  one  of  my  old 
fellow-laborers  that  agree  with  me  in  opinion.  I 
do  not  know  what  plan  Randolph  will  pursue.  He 
is  against  continuing  the  embargo.  I  wish  he 
would  lay  some  plan  before  the  House.  (Why?) 
It  grieves  me  to  the  heart  to  be  compelled,  from  a 
sense  of  right  and  duty,  to  oppose  him."  And  then 
again  referring  to  his  own  isolation,  he  said :  "I  am 
not  consulted,  as  you  seem  to  suppose,  about  any 
thing,  nor  do  I  consult  any  one.  I  am  about  as 
much  out  of  fashion  as  our  grandmothers'  ruffle 
cuffs,  and  I  do  not  believe  I  shall  be  in  fashion 
[again]  as  soon  as  they  will."  And  then,  in  the 
postscript,  although  he  was  doing  all  he  could  in  a 
contrary  direction,  he  added :  "It  is  probable  that 
the  embargo  may  be  taken  off  before  the  adjourn 
ment.  We  have  those  who  think  it  will,  and  that 
war  will  immediately  follow.  I  suspect  all  the  N. 
E.  Republicans  are  for  war  and  no  embargo.  You 
know  it  is  no  easy  task  to  prevent  what  they  want." 
Macon's  bill  was  superseded  by  another,  which 
provided  for  repealing  the  obnoxious  embargo  alto 
gether.  This  last  attempt  at  repeal  was  successful. 
New  England  was  up  in  arms,  and  Congress  was 
almost  forced  by  an  insignificant  minority  to  pass  a 
measure  which  the  majority  had  made  the  most 
prominent  article  of  its  policy.  It  was  a  question  of 
Union  or  dis-Union,  and  the  South  shrank  from 
such  a  catastrophe  at  that  stage  of  its  existence. 
Macon  wrote,  February  28,  1809:  "Otis,  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Senate,  has  this  minute  informed  the  H. 
of  R.  that  the  Senate  have  agreed  to  the  amend 
ments  made  by  the  House  to  the  bill  to  repeal  the 


OF  THE;  EMBARGO.  241 

embargo,  etc.  The  Lord,  the  Mighty  God,  must 
come  to  our  assistance,  or  I  fear  we  are  undone  as 
a  nation/'1  Macon  did  what  he  could  to  prevent  a 
bill  for  a  repeal  from  coming  before  the  House; 
failing  in  this,  he  had  little  to  say  during  the  last 
days  of  this  Congress.  He  had  regained  his  posi 
tion  in  his  party,  and  was  from  this  time  till  the 
outbreak  of  war  three  years  later  one  of  the  fore 
most  figures  in  American  politics. 

As  is  shown  in  his  letter,  the  Administration  was 
deserting  its  favorite  plan.  Jefferson  was  longing 
for  Monticello  as  sincerely  as  Washington  had 
sighed  for  Mount  Vernon,  and  feeling  keenly  his 
defeat  by  his  ancient  enemies,  the  Easterners,  he 
said  not  a  word  and  let  things  drift  till  a  few  days 
before  the  4th  of  March,  when  he  gave  reluctant 
assent  to  the  bill  which  undid  his  whole  foreign 
policy  and  stamped  the  seal  of  failure  on  his  favorite 
scheme  of  rendering  war  unnecessary  in  settling  the 
disputes  of  nations.  Jefferson  retired  amid  the 
jeers  of  the  wealthy  classes  in  New  England,  but 
conscious  that  the  love  and  admiration  of  the  Amer 
ican  people  followed  him.2 

1  To  Joseph  H.  Nicholson. 

2  Compare  Schouler,  II.,  216,  220. 


16 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MACON    A    NATIONAL    CHARACTER,    1809-1812 

The  Republican  party  lost  considerable  strength 
in  North  Carolina  as  a  result  of  Jefferson's  embargo 
policy,  and  the  State's  delegation  in  the  Eleventh 
Congress  was  not  altogether  to  Macon's  liking.  John 
Stanly,  Lemuel  Sawyer,  Richmond  Pearson  and 
Archibald  McBryde,  in  the  main  new  members,  were 
more  often  found  voting  with  the  Federalists  than 
with  the  Republicans.  And  on  no  occasion  did  all 
the  North  Carolinians  vote  on  the  same  side  of  a 
question.  Macon  was  not  the  leader  of  this  dele 
gation,  as  he  had  been  of  the  previous  ones.  Party 
lines  were  not  drawn  so  closely  in  the  South  as  they 
had  been,  and  everybody  was  in  a  tolerant  humor  at 
the  first  session  of  Congress,  May  and  June,  1809. 
The  East,  to  be  sure,  was  still  firm,  and  actually 
regaining  what  had  been  lost  in  1804  and  1805.  In 
the  Middle  States,  as  in  the  South,  lukewarm  Re 
publicans  had  been  returned.  So  that  there  were 
practically  three  parties  in  Congress:  the  Federal 
ists,  the  "old"  Republicans  of  the  South,  and  the 
"manufacturing"  Republicans  of  the  North.  In  the 
election  of  Speaker,  the  two  sections  of  the  Republi 
can  party  found  positive  expression.  The  Northern 
Republicans  supported  Varnum,  while  the  Southern 
ers  voted  for  Macon;  Pitkin,  of  Connecticutt,  re 
ceived  the  vote  of  the  Federalists.  On  the  second 
ballot,  Macon  received  45  against  Varnum's  65 
votes ;  this  rather  unexpected  popularity  and  special 
strength  with  Southern  Republicans  was  the  immed 
iate  cause  of  Macon's  becoming  a  national  character 
of  first-rate  importance  in  iSoQ-iSn.1 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong,,  vol.  I.,  54-56  ;  Schouler,  vol.  II.,  317. 


MACON   A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  243 

The  political  situation  of  1809  was  unique.  Mad 
ison,  a  fine  old  lady,  occupied  the  President's  chair. 
In  his  cabinet  were  two  factions,  or  cliques.  Robert 
Smith,  of  Maryland,  who  was  "backed"  by  a  large 
family  influence  both  in  his  own  State  and  in  Virgin 
ia,  and  whose  brother  was  not  an  insignificant  mem 
ber  of  the  Senate,  had  forced  his  way  into  the  posi 
tion  of  Secretary  of  State,  an  office  for  which  Galla- 
tin  was  pre-eminently  fitted,  and  which  Jefferson 
and  Madison  had  already  agreed  he  should  have. 
But  Gallatin  was  losing  caste  in  Pennsylvania,  was 
none  too  popular  elsewhere,  and  was  too  unsuspect 
ing,  Macon  thought,  to  compete  with  the  active  in 
fluences  of  Smith's  "friends."  Madison  was  not 
the  man  to  say  "no"  to  these  new  influences,  and  the 
able  Pennsylvanian  did  not  receive  the  promotion 
he  deserved.  This  caused  discord  in  the  Cabinet 
not  unlike  that  of  Adams'  administration,  and  these 
factions  extended  their  ramifications  into  both 
houses  of  Congress. 

Before  Madison  was  inaugurated,  Gallatin  told 
Erskine,  the  British  Envoy,  that  the  President-elect 
was  not  so  anti-English  as  Jefferson  had  been, 
which  led  to  condescending  overtures  from  London 
touching  a  better  understanding  on  the  subject  of 
neutral  trade.  Erskine  promised  more  than  his 
master,  Canning,  had  authorized — the  Orders  in 
Council  were  to  be  revoked,  notwithstanding  Eng 
land  had  captured  one  hundred  and  eight  merchant 
men  the  year  before!  Madison  lent  a  willing  ear 
to  these  assurances,  and  issued  a  proclamation  that 
the  strict  Non-intercourse  laws  would,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  cease  to  be  effective  after  June  10.  Mad 
ison  suddenly  became  the  hero  of  the  New  England- 
ers,  and  Jefferson  was  looked  at  askance  even  in 
his  own  faithful  South  for  having  given" the  country 


244  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

so  many  lean  years  of  embargo,  when,  as  it  ap 
peared  under  the  new  regime,  there  had  been  no 
need  for  it. 

Congress  had  come  together  May  22,  and  the 
back-country  and  Southern  members  learned  for  the 
first  time  that  the  war  storm  in  which  the  campaign 
had  been  made  had  blown  over;  there  was  only 
good  news  for  the  mild  and  pacific  Madison  to  com 
municate  to  the  assembled  legislature.  The  ships  pf 
New  England  had  all  been  set  a-going,  tobacco  and 
wheat  from  the  South  were  in  great  demand  already, 
England  was  the  kindliest  of  nations.  The  "new 
broom  was  sweeping  clean." 

What  was  there  for  good  Republicans  to  do? 
Reduce  the  army,  reform  the  navy,  and  correct 
abuses.  Jefferson  had,  very  much  against  his  will, 
as  every  one  knew,  increased  the  standing  army  in 
1808.  Randolph  very  adroitly  moved  on  the  second 
day  of  the  new  session  that  those  "troops  raised 
under  the  act  of  April  12,  1808,  be  immediately  dis 
banded,"  and  that  any  balance  of  public  money 
intended  for  building  gun-boats  "be  applied  toward 
arming  and  equipping  the  whole  body  of  militia  of 
the  United  States."  And  going  beyond  this  undo 
ing  of  Jefferson's  work,  he  introduced  a  second  reso 
lution  calling  for  a  committee  of  investigation  to 
examine  into  the  accounts  of  the  last  two  adminis 
trations,  to  report  irregularities  and  submit  recom 
mendations  how  to  curtail  expenditure.  The  mem 
bers  of  the  House,  delighting  so  much  in  the  sun 
shine  of  the  new  Administration,  suffered  Randolph 
to  make  several  sarcastic  speeches  on  the  policy  of 
the  retiring  President.  Macon,  recalling  the  inves 
tigations  which  Washington  had  asked  in  1796,  and 
which  an  irate  House  had  forced  on  Adams  in  1801, 
and  favoring  investigation  from  principle,  reinforced 


MACON   A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  245 

Randolph  by  saying:  "I  would  establish  it  as  a  rule 
never  to  be  departed  from,  that  whenever  a  man 
goes  out  of  office,  there  should  be  an  investigation 
into  the  money  transactions  conducted  by  him.  I 
wish  it  wrere  a  part  of  the  National  Constitution."1 
Macon  was  Jefferson's  staunchest  friend,  yet  he 
wrote  Nicholson,  May  25 :  "I  am  for  striking  out 
the  part  which  relates  to  reporting  provision  for  the 
better  accountability  of  public  money,  and  for  leav 
ing  the  committee  nothing  to  do  except  the  exami 
nation  of  the  expenditure  and  the  application  of 
public  money.  I  wish  the  committee  may  have  no 
excuse  for  not  making  a  full  investigation."  But 
Macon  was  not  so  content  with  Randolph  when  he 
passed  severe  strictures  on  Jefferson's  embargo.  "I 
differ  totally  from  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,"  he 
said.  And  again,  when  Randolph  urged  a  vote  of 
approbation  for  Madison,  Macon  opposed  him,  see 
ing  clearly  the  mean  partisanship  of  his  friend.2 
This  last  resolution  of  Randolph's  was  lost  only  by 
the  Speaker's  vote.  Thus  while  half  the  members 
of  a  Republican  Congress  were  bowing  down  before 
the  throne  of  the  new  power  and  criticizing  in  the 
severest  manner  all  the  important  measures  of  the 
man  who  had  made  Madison  possible,  Macon  de 
clared  openly  before  all  that  he  was  for  the  embargo, 
that  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  bill  or  of  Jefferson 
but  of  the  people  that  made  it  a  failure ;  yet  much  as 
he  admired  Jefferson  he  opposed  giving  him  the 
privilege  of  mailing  his  letters  free  of  charge.3  Ma 
con  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  investigating 
committee  provided  for  in  Randolph's  first  two  reso 
lutions  and  as  apoears  from  a  letter  of  June  23,  he 
served:  '  'Every  thing  in  my  power  will  be  done;  and 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  66-67. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  107. 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I. ,  148. 


246  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

I  may  tell  you  in  confidence  that  although  the  com 
mittee  are  well  disposed,  owing  to  Randolph's 
engagements  on  [other]  committees,  [it]  leaves 
me  much  of  the  inquiring  part.  Gallatin's  answers 
to  the  inquiries  are  not  received  by  the  committee."1 

While  things  were  as  yet  going  smoothly  with  the 
great  warring  nations  of  Europe,  while  the  embargo 
was  fast  expiring  and  almost  all  the  protective  feat 
ures  of  the  Non-importation  laws  were  disappearing, 
the  "manufacturing"  Republicans  in  cooperation 
with  some  Federalists  began  to  revive  and  expand 
Hamilton's  policy  of  protecting  manufacturers.2  In 
view  of  Macon's  uncompromising  opposition  to  all 
forms  of  protection,  and  especially  from  this  time 
on,  it  may  be  well  to  quote  the  main  resolution : 
"Resolved,  -  that  for  the  protection  of  those  who 
have  commenced,  and  the  encouragement  of  those 
who  may  be  disposed  to  set  on  foot,  manufacturers 
within  the  United  States,  etc.,  provision  ought  forth 
with  to  be  made  by  law  to  subject  to  additional 
duties  on  their  importation  into  the  United  States 
all  articles  of  which  leather,  hemp,  and  cotton  are 
the  chief  materials;  woolen  cloths  above  six  shil 
lings  per  yard;  woolen  hosiery,  glass,  paper,  silver, 
nails,  hats,  clothing  ready  made,  beer,  ale  and  por 
ter." 

Macon  replied  to  Lyon's  remarks  on  this  subject: 
"In  the  country  in  which  I  live,  the  people  want  no 
protecting  duties  to  encourage  domestic  manufac 
tures  ;  the  only  way  to  encourage  them  is  for  our 
great  people,  for  instance  the  Presidents  and  Heads 
of  Departments,  to  make  them  fashionable.  I  have 
no  idea  of  laying  a  tax  to  induce  men  to  work  in 

1  To  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  June  23,  1809  ;  also  Annals  of  Congress,  nth 
Cong.,  I.,  163. 

2  Bacon's  and  Lyon's  resolutions,  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I., 

182-184. 


/f 


:  Nv 

UNIVER31" 

OF 

_MACON   A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  247 

iron,  leather  or  any  other  article.  The  people  who 
favored  the  embargo,  did  not  look  upon  it  as  does 
the  gentleman,  as  an  encouragement  to  manufac 
turing.  Whilst  the  present  Constitution  remains 
to  the  United  States  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  the 
United  States  to  become  a  manufacturing  nation. 
The  Government  must  be  materially  changed  before 
it  can  succeed."1  Protection  as  a  policy  was  not 
begun  at  this  session  but  a  resolution  passed  calling 
on  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  submit  plans 
for  the  adoption  of  such  a  system  at  the  next  session 
of  Congress.  Yet  a  majority  of  the  members  voted 
for  the  principle  under  the  head  of  non-intercourse 
with  France  which  had  to  be  arranged  as  a  result 
of  the  English  friendliness.  And  Madison,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  favored  protective  duties  since  1808, 
when  it  was  seen  that  embargo  must  be  abandoned. 
Madison,  true  to  his  compromising  disposition,  was 
willing  to  make  friends  with  this  new  element  of 
his  party.  Hamilton's  devoted  followers  in  the  East 
opposed  this  policy  of  their  great  leader  now  that  it 
appeared  in  Republican  garb.  But  a  deeper  reason 
was  that  the  interests  of  commerce  would  apparently 
suffer  if  domestic  manufacturing  should  become 
general  and  prosperous.  The  South  was  likewise 
opposed  to  protection  as  it  had  always  been  except 
from  the  individual  States  to  their  own  industries. 
The  Middle  States  and  Kentucky  were  its  champi- 
ions — the  way  was  preparing  for  Henry  Clay. 

A  letter  of  Macon's  written  near  the  close  of  the 
session  shows  how  close  an  observer  he  was  and 
manifests  at  the  same  time  his  aversion  to  secret 
methods :  "I  sincerely  wish  that  it  may  never  so  hap 
pen  that  the  invisibles  govern  the  nation  without  a 
check.  Last  spring  their  power  in  the  Treasury 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  185-186. 


248  NATHANIEL  MACON, 

department  [was  manifest] .  In  conversation  many 
declare  independence  of  them,  yet  on  a  vote  they 
never  fail  to  have  a  majority.  If  they  are  to  gov 
ern,  it  would  be  better  that  they  governed  according 
to  the  constitution,  than  in  the  way  they  do,  another 
now  stands  between  them  and  the  people."1  He 
refers  here  to  the  rising  power  of  the  bank  and 
commercial  men,  as  well  as  the  Smith  faction. 

Congress  adjourned  in  good  spirits  but  anxious 
enough  on  the  subject  of  foreign  intercourse  to  pro 
vide  for  reassembling,  a  week  earlier  than  usual. 
Already  the  British  envoy  had  shown  signs  of  the 
sad  dilemma  into  which  Canning  was  inveigling  the 
American  Cabinet.  In  July  the  whole  arrangement 
between  Erskine  and  Madison  which  had  brought 
such  a  peaceful  and  promising  state  of  things  dur 
ing  the  session  just  closing  was  annulled ;  in  August 
Erskine  was  openly  disgraced  and  Madison  issued 
a  proclamation  announcing  that  England  had  not 
revoked  the  Orders  in  Council  and  that  trade  with 
Great  Britain  was  forbidden.  Jackson  was  the  next 
English  envoy,  but  he  soon  got  himself  dismissed  by 
grossly  insulting  .the  Government  and  made  a  tour 
through  New  England  where  he  was  received  with 
great  enthusiasm  and  entertained  as  a  public  guest.2 
France  was  equally  overbearing.  Napoleon  at  the 
very  pinnacle  of  power  was  only  too  desirous  to  reap 
advantage  from  American  trade  and  if  possible 
embroil  us  in  a  war  with  England. 

It  was  a  sad  condition  of  things  which  the  return 
ing  Legislature  had  to  meet  in  November,  1809 : 
American  trading  vessels  were  scattered  over  the 
whole  world,  their  owners  fearing  capture  or  ready 
to  accept  en  masse  the  protection  of  England ;  East 
ern  politicians  were  hotly  demanding  peace  and  their 

1  To  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  June  23,  1809. 

2  See  Hart's  Formation  of  the  Union,  201. 


MACON    A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  249 

representatives  in  Congress,  Quincy,  Pitkin  and 
Dana  stood  ready  for  any  move  their  constituents 
demanded ;  the  Middle  States  were  divided  in  senti 
ment,  some  following  Duane's  Aurora  were  clamor 
ing  for  immediate  war,  others  were  making  love  to 
New  England  politicians;  the  Southerners  without 
a  leader  were  subject  to  Randolph's  caresses  or  abuse 
according  to  his  whim.  Helpless  itself  this  Repub 
lican  Congress  was  subject  to  a  crossfire:  first 
through  the  Senate  by  means  of  the  Giles  resolu 
tions  commending  the  policy  of  the  Executive,  and 
second  through  the  celebrated  Macon  bill,  No.  i, 
by  way  of  the  House.  Giles  engineered  his  meas 
ures  through  the  Senate  but  in  the  House  the  Feder 
alists  under  the  guidance  of  Quincy  and  others 
talked  them  to  death,  which  led  to  the  establishment 
by  the  House  of  its  celebrated  "rules"  system.  This 
was  not  the  first  time  a  minority  had  "talked"  down 
a  majority  measure;  but  iron-clad  rules  to  prevent 
this  had  until  now  looked  too  much  like  despotic 
suppression  of  free  speech.1  Macon  was  appointed 
chairman  of  the  committee  to  draft  rules.  Macon 
had  often  deprecated  the  speech-making  tendency  of 
most  members  and  he  now  recommended  the  "previ 
ous  question"  practice  which  was  accepted  and 
which  at  present  spoils  the  plans  of  so  many  aspir 
ing  young  representatives.  The  main  features  of 
the  "House  rules"  as  they  obtain  to-day  were  put 
into  use  before  the  end  of  this  session  and*  Macon 
was  just  the  man  to  urge  them. 

The  Macon  bill,  No.  I,  was  the  second  fire.  The 
resolutions  of  November  17,  1808,  and  the  bill  fol 
lowing  were  Macon's  first  attempts  at  a  solution  of 
the  complicated  foreign  problems  of  the  Republican 
era.  His  first  efforts  had  not  been  successful  but 

1  Schouler,  II.,  325. 


250  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

they  received  due  attention  from  his  party.  Again 
in  June,  1809,  he  had  taken  a  leading  share  in  the 
discussion  of  foreign  complications  and  advocated 
that  foreign  war  vessels  be  prohibited  from  enter 
ing  American  harbors.1  December  i,  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  new  session,  he  introduced  resolu 
tions  which  he  said  embraced  the  ideas  of  Early,  of 
Georgia,  D.  R.  Williams,  of  South  Carolina,  Dana, 
of  Connecticut,  and  himself,  and  which  would  alto 
gether  constitute  a  system,  a  regular  foreign  policy. 
These  resolutions  looked  to  the  complete  exclusion 
of  foreign  war  vesels  from  the  ports  of  the  United 
States  and  to  the  suppression  of  the  illicit  trade 
which  foreign  merchants  were  conducting  under  our 
flag.  "I  would  put  them  out  of  the  nation,  and  have 
no  vessels  belonging  to  the  United  States  which  are 
not  perfectly  American.  I  would  have  our  vessels 
wholly  American,  or  they  shall  not  at  all  partake  of 
the  character  of  American  vessels."2  His  resolu 
tions  were  referred  to  the  committee  of  Commerce 
and  Manufactures.  But  the  President's  message3 
had  made  similar  recommendations  and  so  a  select 
committee  of  the  House  was  appointed  to  draw  up 
a  bill  which  should  meet  the  demands  of  the  occasion 
and  at  the  same  time  satisfy  the  wishes  of  the  Ad 
ministration  and  of  the  majority  in  Congress.4  The 
letters  above  cited  as  well  as  many  previous  ones 
show  Macon  to  have  been  on  most  intimate  terms 
with  Gallatin.  Adams  says  in  his  life  of  Gallatin 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  suggested  the 
outline  of  the  bill  which  their  committee  soon  pre 
sented.  This  I  have  been  unable  to  establish,  but 
it  is  quite  apparent  from  the  few  letters  of  Macon 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  1269;  Schouler  II.,  325. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  iith  Cong.,  I.,  686-'87- 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  3,  13. 

4  Schouler,  II.,  326 


MACON    A   NATION AI,   CHARACTER.  251 


which  have  been  preserved  that  Gallatin,  Madison 
and  Macon  all  cooperated  in  drawing  up  the  first 
Macon  bill.  The  Secretary  of  State  was  scarcely 
equal  to  the  undertaking  and  not  popular  enough  in 
the  House  to  be  of  much  service  to  the  President. 
Madison  and  Gallatin  seem  to  have  been  the  authors 
of  the  bill,  yet  Gallatin  could  not  openly  espouse  it 
lest  Shith's  friends  in  the  Senate  defeat  it.  Macon 
was  the  choice  of  the  Administration  to  father  the 
bill  in  the  House,  and  to  further  the  plans  of  the 
Administration  he  was  made  Chairman  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Relations1  as  well  as  because  of 
his  great  influence  with  Southern  members ;  Var- 
num,  his  successful  rival  for  the  speakership,  was  of 
course  in  sympathy  with  any  plan  the  Executive 
might  offer.2 

Macon's  bill  contained  the  following  provisions: 
The  first,  second  and  third  items  embodied  Macon's 
own  resolutions  of  the  previous  year;  the  fourth  to 
the  eighth  articles  prohibited  the  importation  of  Eng 
lish  and  French  products  except  in  vessels  wholly 
manned  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  except 
such  products  come  direct  from  England  or  France 
or  their  respective  colonies.  This  was  the  princi 
ple  of  the  ancient  Navigation  laws  of  England  and 
it  was  designed  to  have  the  same  effect  on  the  war 
ring  powers  of  Europe  as  their  policies  had  had  on 
America;  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth  clauses  gave  the 
President  power  to  suspend  these  laws  in  favor  of 
either  England  or  France  in  case  either  should  aban 
don  its  warlike  policy  towards  American  trade,  and 
repealed  the  former  Non-importation  bill.3 

The  bill  was  read  a  second  time  and  referred  to 
the  Committee  of  the  Whole  for  Friday,  January  5. 

Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  753. 

'    2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  1269  ;  Schouler,  II.,  325. 
3  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  754-'55  ;  Schouler,  II.,  326. 


252  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

But  Giles'  bill  had  the  attention  of  the  House  and 
the  Federalists  were  carrying  out  the  plan  of  talk 
ing  down  the  Administration.  It  was  not  until  the 
majority  threatened  to  adopt  and  enforce  the  "pre 
vious  question"  rule,  that  is  on  Monday,  January 
8,  that  the  Macon  bill  could  get  a  hearing. 

The  wrangling  over  the  Giles  bill  and  the  standing 
threat  of  the  majority  to  adopt  measures  restrain 
ing  everlasting  speech  prepared  the  way  for  a 
warmly  partisan  debate  on  the  Macon  bill.  Liver- 
more  from  Massachusetts  opposed  it  because  it 
would  have  an  injurious  effect  on  American,  not 
foreign,  commerce,  since  it  went  too  far  in  the  way 
of  restriction;  and  Sawyer,  an  erratic  colleague  of 
Macon,  charged  the  Committee  with  tame  sub 
mission  to  England,  with  asking  no  reparation  for 
the  Chesapeake  affair,  no  release  of  our  impressed 
seamen,  no  revocation  of  the  Orders  in  Council. 
Such  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  America  was  not 
only  debasing  the  people  as  a  nation  but  every 
individual  must  be  contemptible  in  his  own  eyes.1 
Macon  responded  to  both:  "The  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  thinks  the  bill  so  strong  that  it  will 
ruin  us,  by  drawing  upon  us  counterveiling  acts; 
and  my  colleague  thinks  its  weakness  will  only  war 
rant  further  aggression  on  us."  "The  Committee," 
he  continued,  "was  well  aware  of  the  situation  in 
which  they  were  placed.  The  Message  of  the  29th 
was  pacific;  it  was  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that 
non-intercourse  was  totally  useless ;  it  was  neces 
sary  that  something  should  be  done;  and  the  com 
mittee  agreed  to  report  this  bill."  The  granting  of 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  as  advocated  by  many 
he  opposed  as  impracticable  and  against  the  senti 
ment  of  the  House,  citing  the  very  small  favor  a 
measure  of  that  kind  had  received  a  year  before. 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  1161. 


MACON    A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  253 

He  insisted  that  his  bill  was  the  most  elastic  possi 
ble  admitting  of  being  made  stronger  or  weaker  at 
the  discretion  of  the  President,  that  it  sought  to 
remove  the  burdens  of  our  commerce  from  our 
shoulders  to  those  of  the  English,  that  it  deserved 
the  support  of  the  members  if  but  for  the  repeal  of 
the  non-intercourse  law.  Sawyer  had  said  the  pro 
posed  measure  would  not  satisfy  the  public.  Macon 
replied :  "Whether  the  bill  will  satisfy  the  people  or 
not  I  am  totally  ignorant.  I  can  never  tell  what 
will  satisfy  the  people  I  represent;  all  I  can  do  is 
to  act  as  I  think  right  and  depend  on  such  conduct 
for  their  approbation.  I  am  not  for  a  declaration  of 
war  just  now,  and  I  take  this  opportunity  of  say 
ing  so.  The  nation  is  not  as  much  prepared  now 
for  war  as  it  was  last  winter,  or  as  it  was  when  the 
Chesapeake  was  attacked/'1  In  his  advocacy  of  the 
bill,  Macon  was  willing  to  give  the  President  dis 
cretionary  powers  in  its  execution,  should  it  become 
a  law,  which  he  would  under  any  other  circum 
stances  have  denied.  He  had  voted  against  such 
powers  being  given  Washington  in  1793  and  Jef 
ferson  in  1807.  Macon  spoke  again  and  again  in  fa 
vor  of  the  bill  and  was  in  general  recognized  as  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  Government.  Ross,  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  dealt  in  some  condescending  remarks  about  its 
supporters  and  not  a  few  were  constantly  striving  to 
make  a  sectional  measure  of  Macon's  bill,  innocent 
as  it  was  of  any  partisan  designs.  Macon  made 
apology  for  rising  again  to  this  question,  and  begged 
the  indulgence  of  the  House.  He  spoke  perhaps 
an  hour:  "Without  referring  to  ^Esop  or  Grotius,  it 
seems  to  me  that  common  sense  would  in  the  present 
case  decide  our  course.  But  the  bill  contains  embargo 
prinicples,  we  are  told — these  seem  to  be  quite  as 
much  dreaded  as  the  fatal  submission  which  the  bill 

^Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  1163. 


254  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

contains.  Yes,  sir,  I  am  an  embargo  man,  and 
hesitate  not  to  say,  that  the  day  Congress  gave  up 
the  embargo  for  the  non-intercourse,  if  there  be  sub 
mission,  that  day  it  began;  if  we  wish  war,  either 
against  England  or  France,  or  against  both,  instead 
of  the  non-intercourse  act,  we  ought  then  to  have 
made  a  declaration  of  war ;  we  had  then  our  sailors, 
our  property,  and  our  vessels  at  home.  I  can  not 
perceive  the  great  wisdom,  and  undaunted  courage, 
in  these  war  speeches,  when  there  is  no  war  motion." 
Gold  of  New  York  had  insinuated  that  Macon  had 
attempted  privately  to  win  his  support.  Macon 
resented  the  charge :  "I  deny  it  as  to  myself ;  I  call 
upon  no  man  for  aid.  The  bill  must  stand  or  fall 
on  its  own  merits.  It  has  never  been,  nor  ever  will 
be  my  practice  to  be  running  about  the  city  by  day 
or  by  night,  prowling  after  men,  to  support  any 
measure  I  may  propose;  if  right  they  ought  to  be 
adopted,  if  wrong  they  ought  to  be  rejected.  To 
have  solicited  the  aid  of  the  men  who  declare  the 
bill  to  be  submission,  and  that  nothing  but  war  will 
save  the  nation,  would  be,  in  my  opinion,  to  have 
insulted  them.  Nor  have  I  requested  or  demanded 
of  them  to  come  out  as  party  men  to  support  the  bill. 
No,  sir,  I  have  never  asked  any  man  to  yield  his 
judgment  to  party.  The  same  gentleman  says  the 
present  discussion  at  the  next  election  will  put  men 
who  are  for  more  energetic  measures  in  Congress 
from  the  Eastern  and  Southern  States.  As  to  the 
people  from  the  East,  personally  I  know  but  little 
about  them,  having  never  been  among  them ;  if, 
however,  a  judgment  may  be  formed  of  them,  from 
their  members  here,  they  will  be  found  as  tenacious 
of  their  opinions  as  most  people  are.  Whatever  may 
be  the  decision  of  those  of  the  South,  which  I  repre 
sent,  it  will  be  perfectly  agreeable  to  me;  but  I  am 


MACON    A    NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  255 

yet  to  learn  that  the  people  in  the  East  and  in  the 
South  are  more  fickle  than  those  of  the  Middle 
States." 

He  then  spoke  of  Southern  conditions  interspers 
ing  a  bit  of  shrewd  sarcasm  occasionally :  "It  is  true 
that  the  people  in  the  South  do  not  make  a  practice 
to  pass  fiery  resolutions,  which  in  general  mean 
nothing  more  than  that  the  first  mover  of  the  meet 
ing  and  of  the  resolutions  wants  an  office.  On  the 
day  of  election  they  pass  on  the  conduct  of  their 
representatives  and  then  tell  them  whether  they 
have  done  well  or  not."  His  concluding  words 
were:  "Sir,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  bill  will  pro 
mote  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  nation  by  pre 
serving  peace.  It  offers  to  Great  Britain  and  France 
another  proof  of  the  sincerity  of  our  desire  to  remain 
neutral  and  to  settle  our  disputes  with  them  in  a 
friendly  way.  It  justly  places  them  on  the  same 
ground  in  relation  to  us.  It  is  a  measure  which  we 
can  maintain  because  it  promotes  the  interest  of  all 
and  particularly  the  interest  of  those  who  might 
with  the  most  facility  evade  its  operation.  The 
Orders  and  Decrees  of  Great  Britain  and  France 
are  certainly  against  their  interests ;  it  will  afford 
them  time  to  reconsider  them  and  I  hope  to  with 
draw  them ;  and  as  no  other  system  has  been  pro 
posed,  either  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  or  in 
the  House,  I  trust  it  will  meet  the  approbation  of  the 
Legislature."1  Macon's  bill  finally  passed  the  House, 
73  to  52,  on  January  29. 2 

The  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  January 
30,  and  next  day  it  was  read  a  second  time  and  con 
signed  to  the  tender  mercies  of  Senator  Smith  as 
chairman  of  a  select  committee  for  its  considera- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  i283-'84. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1354. 


256  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

tion.  Smith  was  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Gallatin 
clique  and,  suspecting  that  Madison  had  drawn  the 
bill  according  to  Gallatin's  suggestions,  thus  ignor 
ing  his  incompetent  Secretary  of  State,  Robert 
Smith,  this  intensely  jealous  faction  first  delayed, 
then  amended,  and  finally  passed  the  bill  with  every 
clause  removed,  except  those  repealing  the  non- 
intercourse.1  This  emasculated  bill  was  then  re 
turned  to  the  House  where  Macon  and  his  friends 
urged  entire  rejection,  or  the  passage  of  the  origi 
nal  measure.  A  conference  of  both  Houses  took 
place  with  the  result  that  no  agreement  could  be 
obtained,  and  so  all  the  efforts  of  the  Administration 
came  to  naught.2  This  was  March  31,  1810. 

The  policy  outlined  in  Macon's  plan  was  a  good 
one,  and,  as  Schouler  says,  it  would  very  likely  have 
solved  the  problems  of  neutral  commerce  as  they 
were  in  1808  instead  of  1810.  Macon  was  indig 
nant  at  the  action  of  the  Senate  and  of  many  mem 
bers  of  the  House.  Numerous  letters,  he  said, 
were  coming  to  him  daily  urging  the  passage  of  his 
bill,  the  state  of  the  public  mind  was  unsettled,  gamb 
lers  were  taking  advantage  of  the  fluctuating  prices. 
In  fact  the  country  was  becoming  disgusted  at  this 
wrangling,  useless  Congress  dominated  by  cliques 
and  extravagant  partisans.3 

The  sole  cause  of  this  failure  of  three  months' 
continuous  effort  on  Macon's  part,  supported,  too, 
by  the  whole  weight  of  the  Administration,  was  the 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  Smith  family  to 
drive  Gallatin  from  the  Cabinet.  Giles,  of  Vir 
ginia,  Leib,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Duane,  of  the 
Aurora,  joined  the  opponents  of  the  Secretary  of  the 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  L,  550-577;  Adams'  Gallatin,  416; 
Schouler,  II.,  328. 

=  Annals]of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  1559,  1635,  1701. 
3  Annals  ot  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  i635-'36. 


MACON   A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  257 

Treasury ;  the  influence  of  Duane's  paper  was  given 
entirely  to  the  great  Maryland  family.  Macon  was 
an  open  advocate  of  Gallatin  for  the  presidency. 
To  kill  Macon's  bill,  they  argued,  was  to  undo  the 
plan  of  Gallatin,  which,  if  successful,  would  bring 
him  again  to  the  forefront  in  Washington.  Giles 
was  perhaps  a  little  jealous,  too,  on  his  own  score  at 
the  national  prominence  which  Macon's  bill  obtained 
while  his  own  attracted  no  general  or  extended 
attention.  While  the  Macon  bill  was  dying  "between 
the  Houses"  the  Senate  was  trying  to  revive  the 
old  convoy  policy  of  1798.  Resolutions  looking  to 
sending  out  armed  convoys  with  trading  vessels 
bound  for  European  ports  were  introduced  on 
the  same  day  Macon's  bill  was  brought  in ;  and 
again  a  week  later  these  resolutions  were  sub 
mitted  to  the  committee  on  Foreign  Relations  in 
order  that  a  bill  might  be  prepared.1 

On  the  day  when  Macon's  bill  finally  came  to 
naught,  Randolph  suddenly  appeared  in  the  House 
and  introduced  a  resolution  calling  for  immediate 
repeal  of  the  non-intercourse  laws.  He  took  this 
occasion  to  review  again  the  whole  policy  of  em 
bargo  and  non-intercourse,2  and  so  wrought  upon 
the  House  as  to  make  a  return  to  the  Gallatin  sys 
tem  still  revolving  in  Macon's  methodical  brain 
impossible.  Macon  was  not  a  little  annoyed  at 
Randolph  though  he  was  not  himself  very  hopeful 
of  any  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problems  with 
which  he  had  been  so  long  wrestling.  He  wrote 
Nicholson,  April  3 :  "By  the  papers  you  will  see 
that  we  are  debating  a  motion  by  Randolph  to  repeal 
the  non-intercourse  law.  This  motion  is  hardly 
worth  the  time  that  has  already  been  consumed, 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  550,  587. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1702. 

17 


258  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

and  I  apprehend  we  shall  hardly  decide  it  to-day. 
Among  many  members  there  is  a  desire  to  do  some 
thing,  by  which  is  meant  to  pass  some  act,  which 
shall  operate  on  both  the  belligerents.  But  I  have 
not  discovered  any  system  except  that  which  has 
been  lost  between  the  two  Houses,  which  would  not 
also  operate  very  strongly  on  us.  An  embargo, 
could  it  be  carried,  is  the  only  measure  which  would 
bring  G.  Britain  to  terms.  There  is  no  chance  for 
that,  and  that  would  probably  have  more  effect  on 
France  than  any  other  measure."1 

On  Saturday,  April  7,  Macon  introduced  bill  No. 

\2  on  the  subject  of  foreign  intercourse.  This  was 
>:called  "Macon's  bill  No.  2."  It  abandoned  the 
policy  of  retaliation  on  Great  Britain  of  bill  No.  I, 
provided  for  the  repeal  of  non-intercourse  at  the 
end  of  the  session  and  concluded  by  authorizing  the 
President  to  revive  non-importation  against  either 
England  or  France  in  case  either  of  those  powers 
should  abandon  its  present  policy,  that  is,  he  should 

i  say  to  the  two  great  powers  of  Europe :  "We  have 
done  forever  with  non-intercourse  measures  towards 
both  of  you ;  but  if  one  of  you  will  cease  capturing 
and  confiscating  our  trading  vessels,  we  will  immedi 
ately  return  to  our  non-intercourse  with  the  other."- 
Macon  reported  this  bill  from  the  committee  which 
still  acted  for  the  Administration,  though  it  was 
helpless  before  the  treacherous  Smith  clique  in  Con 
gress.  Macon  was  in  no  way  enthusiastic  over  his 
second  bill,  and  he  wrote  as  much  to  his  friend :  "I 
am  at  a  loss  to  guess  what  we  shall  do  on  the  sub 
ject  of  foreign  relations.  The  bill  in  the  enclosed 
paper  called  Macon's  No.  2  is  not  really  Macon's, 
though  he  reported  it  as  namesake.  It  is  in  truth 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  April  3,  1810. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1763. 


MACON   A   NATIONAL,   CHARACTER.  259 

Taylor's  (of  S.  C.).  This  I  only  mention  to  you, 
because,  when  it  comes  to  be  debated  I  shall  not 
act  the  part  of  a  father  or  a  step-father.  Burwell 
and  Eppes  still  talk  about  their  convoy,  each  pro 
fessing  his  own  convoy.  The  Ways  and  Means 
and  the  bank  will  make  some  warm  talk,  I  expect."1 

Macon  did  not  "father"  the  bill.  It  passed  after 
much  angry  debate  and  an  attempt  at  turning  the 
main  issue  to  protection  for  domestic  manufactures 
by  Johnson  of  Kentucky.  Bill  No.  2  received  the 
approval  of  the  House  by  a  vote  of  61  to  40. 
Macon  wrote  on  April  21  concerning  the  part  he 
took  in  its  passage :  "We  have  passed  and  sent  to  the 
Senate  the  2nd  bill  reported  by  me,  with  an  amend 
ment  proposed  by  Johnson  of  Kentucky  to  lay  50 
per  cent  on  the  duties  now  payable  on  French  and 
English  goods,  but  which  new  duties  are  to  cease 
when  the  Decrees  and  Orders  of  G.  B.  and  France 
are  withdrawn  which  is  to  be  notified  by  proclama 
tion  of  the  President  when  either  or  both  shall  with 
draw  their  edicts. 

"This  plan  is  said  to  be  a  Cabinet  project.  If  so 
it  satisfies  me  that  the  Cabinet  is  hard  pushed  for 
a  plan,  but  it  may  have  been  taken  to  prevent  a 
worse  or  to  prevent  the  continuance  of  the  present 
non-intercourse  system.  Some  who  opposed  No.  i 
wished  it  had  become  a  law.  I  mean  feds.  I  am 
almost  apprehensive  that  the  invisibles  may  be  at 
the  bottom  of  this  amendment  before  mentioned 
(Johnson's)  with  a  view  to  injure  Gallatin.  They 
may  if  they  can  ascertain  its  fate  in  the  Senate  by 
indirect  means  and  before  a  vote  is  taken,  take  the 
side  which  may  best  answer  their  purpose.  If  it 
will  not  pass  they  may  (if  it  be  a  Cabinet  measure) 
support  it  to  show  their  zeal  for  the  Administration, 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  April  10,  1810. 


260  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

and  if  it  will  pass  wthout  their  aid,  they  may  oppose 
it  to  show  that  G.  neither  understands  how  to  get 
money  in  the  Treasury  by  new  taxes,  nor  how  to 
encourage  manufactures.  He,  G.,  I  am  afraid,  is 
not  enough  on  his  guard  as  to  these  people.  I  have 
shown  this  to  Randolph.  I  write  while  Love  is 
speaking  on  the  Bank."1 

Johnson's  amendment  referred  to  in  the  letter 
just  cited  was  incorporated  into  the  Macon  bill  No. 
2.  in  the  House  but  was  stricken  out  in  the  Senate 
in  favor  of  a  second  amendment  granting  public 
convoys  to  private  merchant  ships.  A  conference 
of  both  Houses  resulted  in  the  loss  of  this  second 
amendment  and  the  original  bill  became  a  law  late 
Saturday  evening,  the  last  day  of  the  session,  May 
i,  i8io.2 

But  Macon  had  not  only  ceased  to  advocate  his 
bill,  he  actually  voted  against  its  final  passage.3  So 
far  had  things  drifted  and  changed  since  December. 
In  fact,  the  measure  expressed  no  one's  policy. 
It  was  simply  a  feeble  assertion  of  authority  on  the 
part  of  the  President  who  exercised  no  authority— 
a  plan  which  forestalled  Randolph's  repeal  of  the 
non-intercourse  law  then  in  force,  which  on  its 
very  surface  showed  that  the  Senate  held  the  reins 
of  power  if  there  were  any  reins  at  that  chaotic  time. 

The  reason  Macon  refused  to  support  the  meas 
ure  which  bore  his  name  was  that  Johnson's  protec 
tive  clause  had  been  tacked  on.  These  ideas  which 
Lyon  !  had  advocated  some  months  before  and  which 
Macon  deprecated  so  much  had  been  taken  up  by 
another  Kentuckian,  a  powerful  and  popular  man, 
and  nearly  carried.  Macon  did  not  think  the  amend- 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  April  21,  1810. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  I.,  678. 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1931. 


MACON   A    NATIONAL    CHARACTER.  261 

ment  of  itself  so  dangerous.  It  was  the  political 
opinion  which  it  manifested.  This  opinion,  too, 
was  spreading.  The  New  England,  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  Kentucky,  and  even  some  Virginia  Re 
publicans,  said  he,  were  "full  of  manufacturing."1 

April  14,  Eppes,  from  the  committee  on  Ways 
and  Means,  presented  the  estimates  for  the  expenses 
of  the  coming  year.  In  this  estimate  it  was  shown 
that  an  increase  of  $3,000,000  in  the  annual  income 
would  be  required,  or  that  a  reduction  in  the  expen 
diture  must  be  made.  Gallatin  recommended  either 
a  reduction  in  the  army  and  navy  establishments,  or 
an  increased  duty  of  5  per  cent  on  all  ad  valorem, 
and  33  1-3  per  cent  on  all  specific  imports,  his  pref 
erence  being  the  latter  method.  Eppes  submitted  a 
clear  and  open  statement  of  fiscal  conditions  and 
moved  that  the  additional  duty  be  laid.2  No  better 
showing  could  have  been  expected  under  the  cir 
cumstances  and  no  more  reasonable  demands  were 
ever  made  on  the  representatives.  Yet  Randolph 
burst  forth  again  in  a  lengthy  tirade  against  the 
Jefferson  regime  contrasting,  as  he  claimed,  sharply 
with  the  economical  administrations  of  Washington 
and  Adams.  Macon  would  not  admit  Randolph's 
claims  for  the  Federalists  to  be  true,  yet 
opposed  the  increased  tariff  proposition :  "  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  understand  this  bill.  I  do  not 
know  whether  it  is  meant  to  encourage  manufac 
tures  or  for  what  other  object  we  are  asked  to  raise 
this  money."  The  point  on  which  he  was  most 
sensitive  and  on  which  his  opinion  was  made  up 
was  that  of  "encouraging  manufactures."  "If  you 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  April  21,  1810. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II., 


262  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

want  money,  I  am  ready  to  agree  that  you  can  not 
get  it  by  internal  taxes ;  but  rather  than  saddle  those 
whom  I  represent  with  a  tax  to  encourage  manufac 
tures,  if  that  be  the  object,  I  would  vote  for  a  direct 
tax.  What  does  this  system  lead  to  ?  To  this :  that 
you  will  go  on  by  tax  on  tax  until  you  manufacture 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  everything  that 
can  there  be  raised  for  the  purpose  of  manufactur 
ing.  This  may  be  a  good  thing  to  the  part  of  the 
country  which  will  be  the  manufacturing  part.  They 
may  laugh  and  sing ;  but  to  that  part  that  will  never 
manufacture  it  will  be  death.  The  latter  may  wring 
their  hands  and  cry,  but  in  vain;  for  once  but  get 
the  manufacturing  mania  fixed  on  the  nation  and  we 
shall  be  saddled  with  it  as  long  as  the  nation  exists. 
I  can  state  an  opinion  that  I  entertain,  which  may 
by  many  be  thought  not  to  be  correct.  It  is  this: 
that  precisely  as  you  encourage  this  manufacturing 
spirit,  in  the  same  ratio  will  you  depress  all  the 
domestic  manufactures  of  the  country  I  live  in.  Sir, 
I  voted  for  the  embargo  to  avoid  war,  under  the 
belief  that  if  we  adhered  to  it  we  should  settle  our 
disputes  with  one  of  the  belligerents,  but  never 
meant  by  it  to  encourage  manufactures.  As  to  the 
non-intercourse  laws,  as  I  never  voted  for  them, 
I  do  not  know  on  what  principle  they  were  voted 
for." 

His  solution  of  the  difficulty  is  given  in  the  fol 
lowing:  "As  it  appears  to  me,  sir,  that  the  question 
is  pretty  well  settled  that  we  do  not  mean  to  take 
any  very  energetic  measures  at  the  present  session 
of  Congress,  what  use  is  there  in  keeping  up  the 
navy  and  that  skeleton  of  an  army?  Can  any  man 
tell  me  the  use  of  them  unless  they  are  expressly  for 
the  purpose  of  spending  money?"  He  then  goes 
on  to  show  the  uselessness  of  both  establishments, 


MACON   A   NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  263 

especially  of  the  navy,  concluding:  "Reduce  the 
Army  and  Navy  and  let  us  be  told  what  money  is 
wanting  and  I  will  vote  a  loan  to  that  amount.  But 
vote  first  to  raise  money  and  afterwards  to  reduce 
it  is  what  I  will  not  do.  If  we  want  money  it  ought 
to  be  gotten  in  the  way  most  convenient  to  the 
people ;  and  it  would  seem  as  if,  when  we  once  lay  a 
tax,  it  is  impossible  to  get  it  off  again.  I  recollect 
when  the  two  and  a  half  per  cent  duty  (commonly 
entitled  the  Mediterranean  fund)  was  laid  it  was 
stated  that  we  would  scarcely  ever  get  it  off  again ; 
and  it  has  been  kept  on  so  far,  though  the  original 
cause  of  it  has  ceased.1 

A  proposition  for  the  reduction  of  the  army  and 
navy  gained  the  precedence  over  Eppes'  tariff  bill. 
Macon  moved  an  amendment  to  the  proposition 
which  called  for  disbanding  the  entire  army.  A 
miserable  feud  which  arose  out  of  the  Wilkinson 
controversy  had  actually  spread  through  all  ranks 
of  the  organization,  and,  because  of  this,  Macon 
desired  the  complete  demolition  of  that  branch  of 
the  public  service  instead  of  a  reduction  which  he 
assented  to  in  the  case  of  the  navy.2  But  enmity 
to  both  was  deep  rooted  in  his  mind.  He  had 
inherited  from  his  ancestors,  political  and  other 
wise  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  hatred  for  all 
standing  armies  and  permanent  navies  and  a  special 
liking  for  defense  alone  in  times  of  war.  This  radi 
cal  disposition  to  disband  our  defensive  forces  in 
the  very  face  of  foreign  complication,  coupled  with 
the  many  complaints  against  Wilkinson,  had  already 
set  in  motion  an  investigation  of  the  affairs  of  the 
army,  and  General  Wilkinson  was  called  on  to 
submit  a  large  number  of  papers  bearing  on  the 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1847 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  II.,  1863. 


264  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

conduct  of  the  army  since  the  Burr  conspiracy  of 
1805  and  ko6.  The  papers  had  mysteriously  disap 
peared  and  unfortunately  for  the  army  and  the 
country  the  business  was  not  cleared  up.  The  army 
was  not  disbanded  as  perhaps  would  have  been 
best,  and  the  navy  was  not  reduced ;  Macon's  attack 
took  the  form  later  of  a  resolution  to  sell  most  of 
the  war  vessels  and  trust  to  buying  and  arming 
merchantmen  in  case  of  war.  In  fact  Macon  was 
in  bad  spirits  with  every  thing  toward  the  end  of 
the  session,  as  a  private  letter  shows :  "The  House 
is  engaged  on  the  bill  to  reduce  the  naval  establish 
ment  and  have  begun  to  take  yeas  and  nays.  It  is 
quite  probable  that  all  the  attempts  to  reduce  expen 
diture  at  this  session  will  prove  abortive.  It  is  pos 
sible  it  may  tend  to  make  some  of  the  public  func 
tionaries  a  little  more  attentive  to  economy.  The 
speeches  on  the  floor  may  produce  this  effect.  All 
agree  that  the  expenditure  in  the  navy  department 
ought  to  be  checked  and  yet  it  will  not  be  I  fear. 
Hamilton  (Paul  Hamilton  of  S.  C.)  I  believe  is  hon 
est  and  determined,  but  the  abuses  have  got  such 
strong  hold  that  it  may  be  questioned  whether  he 
has  power  to  tear  them  up  by  the  roots.  It  is  also 
doubtful  whether  the  army  will  be  reduced.  Diffi 
cult  as  it  may  be  thought  to  get  an  expensive  estab 
lishment  fixed  on  a  free  nation,  it  is  certainly  more 
difficult  to  get  clear  of  one  when  it  is  fixed.  These 
establishments  generally  make  convenient  places 
for  the  governmental  connections  and  their  more 
obliging  friends  and  cruel  is  the  task  which  upright 
ness  imposes  to  take  these  snug  places  from  those 
that  may  be  dear  and  necessary  to  the  rulers. 

"The  times  have  changed;  the  navy  is  now  a 
Republican  institution  and  must  be  supported  on 
loans.  Who  of  those  who  loves  one  but  must  delight 


MACON   A    NATIONAL   CHARACTER.  265 

in  the  other.  And  with  these  the  admirer  must 
embrace  executive  discretion  which,  contrary  to  gen 
eral  laws  of  nature,  grows  more  lovely  and  comely 
the  more  it  is  used  and  the  older  it  grows.  It  is 
not  strange  when  the  quality  of  their  discretion  is 
known,  that  those  who  some  years  past  spoke  of  it 
as  being  more  deformed  and  ugly  than  Cyclops, 
should  now  think  it  more  comely  than  Venus  and 
more  to  be  admired  than  Christian  faith  or  pure 
Gold.  Nay,  had  Solomon  lived  in  this  day  he  would 
have  acknowledged  that  a  Navy  was  more  to  be 
coveted  than  true  wisdom ;  and  if  Solomon  had  not 
have  been  a  man  of  peace  how  eloquently  could  he 
have  portrayed  the  great  advantages  of  a  well- 
dressed  standing  army  to  preserve  national  liberty 
over  the  ragged  militia  of  the  nation  itself,  nay 
how  easy  could  he  have  proved  the  people  to  be 
their  own  worst  enemies."1 

While  the  Macon  bill  No.  I  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  anti-Gallatin  clique,  Gardenier,  a  Federalist  of 
New  York,  read  before  the  House  an  article  from 
the  Virginia  Argus,  signed  Camillus,  which  con 
tained  charges  of  misappropriation  of  public 
money,  of  speculating  in  United  States  securities 
and  in  public  lands.  Gardenier  was  one  of  the  most 
influential  members  of  the  opposition  in  Congress. 
He  turned  this  reading  of  anonymous  charges  in 
an  insignificant  newspaper  into  serious  resolutions, 
demanding  that  Gallatin's  administration  of  the 
Treasury  be  investigated.  This  was  the  work  of 
the  Smiths  and  it  was  intended  to  force  their  enemy 
in  the  cabinet  to  resign.  Ross  of  Pennsylvania  gave 
voice  to  the  disgust  of  many  others  at  the  mean  fight 
the  Smiths  were  making  against  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  He  said:  "While  his  (Gallatin's) 

1  Macon  to  Nicholson,  April  28,  1810. 


266  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

political  enemies  are  so  careful  of  his  reputation, 
why  are  they  not  equally  careful  of  the  reputation 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  was  equally  abused 
by  the  writer  under  the  signature  of  Philolaos  or 
Mutius?"  Inquiry  in  the  one  place  demanded  in 
quiry  in  the  other,  he  said.1  Macon  was  willing 
for  the  investigation  to  be  ordered.  "If  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  were  my  own  brother,  if  he 
were  my  father,  and  an  inquiry  was  asked  into  his 
conduct,  I  would  grant  it.  Seventeen  members 
-out  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  voted  for 
the  Gardenier  resolutions,  among  them  Richard 
Stanford  and  Nathaniel  Macon.  The  Smith  move 
in  the  House  was  a  failure,  as  was  also  their  attempt 
in  the  following  summer  to  ruin  Gallatin  in  Mary 
land.2 

^  The  effect  of  the  second  Macon  bill  was  that 
France  removed  its  Decrees  in  August,  this  to  take 
effect  November  i.  According  to  the  terms  of  our 
law  this  concession  on  the  part  of  Napoleon  com 
pelled  the  President  to  proclaim  non-importation 
against  England.  England  paid  no  attention  to  the 
Macon  law  and  treated  with  contempt  all  remon 
strances  of  our  representatives  against  the  sham 
blockade  of  Europe  and  against  the  impressment  of 
seamen.  Madison  revived  non-importation  against 
England  in  November.  Still  England  gave  no 
assurance  that  any  change  of  policy  might  be  ex 
pected. 

Congress  reassembled  for  its  final  session  Decem 
ber  3.  The  President  could  give  no  encouraging 
picture  of  foreign  affairs.  England's  silence  com 
pelled  Congress  to  sit  still  until  February,  the  date 
when  the  revived  non-importation  act  would  go  into 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  1414-1421. 

2  Schouler,  II.,  328. 


MACON   A   NATIONAL    CHARACTER.  267 

effect.  There  would  then  remain  only  one  month 
more  in  which  to  formulate  a  policy  and  enact  laws 
accordingly.  Hence  there  was  little  chance  of  any 
decisive  measure  on  foreign  intercourse  being  taken 
by  the  Eleventh  Congress.  In  default  of  anything 
to  do  along  the  lines  of  the  last  session's  legislation, 
Congress  took  up  seriously  the  great  bank  question, 
the  admission  of  Orleans  territory  as  a  State,  and 
other  domestic  matters. 

In  the  assignments  to  committees  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  session  Macon  had  not  been  placed  on 
the  committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  but  he  was 
given  a  place  on  the  committee  to  consider  the  estab-  / 
lishment  of  a  National  University  at  Washington, 
a  pet  scheme,  it  will  be  remembered,  both  of  Wash 
ington  and  Madison.  Macon  was  not  then  so  im 
portant  a  character  as  he  had  been,  yet  he  was  one  of 
the  foremost  leaders  of  the  Administration  party  in 
the  House.1  Nothing  came  of  the  National  Univer 
sity,  as  was  to  be  expected. 

The  charter  of  the  United  States  bank  as  estab 
lished  in  1791  was  about  to  expire.  Gallatin,  origi 
nally  a  strong  opponent  of  Hamilton's  bank  and 
other  policies,  was  now  ready  to  advocate  a  new 
charter.  The  cause  of  his  change  of  opinion  need 
not  interest  us  here  except  to  say  that  perhaps  the 
growing  power  of  the  Smith  influence,  which 
enjoyed  now,  in  addition  to  the  unqualified  support 
of  Duane's  paper,  the  support  of  the  Richmond 
Enquirer,  one  of  the  most  potent  powers  in  the 
Republican  party,  had  made  him  look  about  for 
active  adherents.  Gallatin  outlined  a  plan  for  the 
new  bank  and  had  it  soon  brought  before  Congress. 
A  similar  proposition  had  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  House  during  the  past  session,  but  it  had  been 

i  Schouler,  II.,  352. 


268  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

forced  to  yield  to  the  sterner  demands  of  foreign 
complications.  It  was  now  to  become  the  great 
question  not  only  before  the  National  legislature  but 
before  the  whole  country.  The  new  charter  asked 
for  a  capital  stock  of  three  million  dollars,  of  which 
the  States  might  take  half  the  stock ;  it  promised  to 
establish  branch  banks  in  each  State,  with  the 
allowance  of  a  certain  number  of  State  directors; 
and  also  agreed  to  give  the  United  States  govern 
ment  a  bonus  of  one  million  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  to  pay  interest  on  United  States 
deposits,  and  to  loan  the  nation  three-fifths  of  its 
capital  at  six  per  cent  interest,  or  under.1  The 
strict  constructionists  feared  such  a  monster  insti 
tution ;  the  Southern  planters  were  astounded  that 
any  institution  could  pay  such  an  enormous  bonus 
simply  for  the  privilege  of  driving  an  honest  busi 
ness.  Macon  cried  out  constantly  against  the  re- 
charter  ;  he  never  ceased  to  declaim  against  the 
bank  from  this  time  until  its  final  overthrow  by 
Jackson.  His  admiration  for  Gallatin  waned.  But 
he  made  no  set  speech  against  the  bank.  A  letter 
of  January  17,  1811,  shows  something  of  his  feel 
ings  :  "Yesterday  and  to-day  the  House  has  been 
engaged  on  the  bill  to  renew  the  charter  of  the  U. 
S.  bank.  The  bill  will  not,  I  imagine,  pass.  It  is 
reported  that  it  has  fewer  friends  than  at  the  last 
session.  The  present  friends  to  a  National  bank 
may  be  divided  into  four  classes:  (i)  For  the  re 
newal  of  the  charter  with  some  modification  ;  (2) 
for  a  new  bank;  (3)  establish  a  National  bank  at  the 
next  or  some  future  session ;  (4)  use  the  State  banks 
and  their  paper.  All  these  are  considered  as  hav 
ing  no  constitutional  objections."2  Macon's  objec- 

1  Schouler,  II.,  350. 

2  Macon  to  Nicholson,  January  17,  1811. 


MACON   A    NATIONAL    CHARACTER.  269 

tion  to  the  bank  was  on  constitutional  as  well  as 
partisan  grounds;  his  was  not  a  banking  state  and 
his  people  were  simple  farmers  whom  he  himself 
had  trained  for  twenty  years  to  distrust  any  and 
all  additions  to  the  powers  of  the  National  govern 
ment. 

The  re-charter  bill  was  lost  on  a  narrower  margin 
than  he  had  thought.  The  final  vote  in  the  House 
stood  63  for,  64  against ;  and  in  the  Senate  a  sepa 
rate  bill  for  the  same  purpose  was  lost  by  Vice- 
President  Clinton's  vote.1  Macon  did  not  control 
the  vote  of  his  State.  Willis  Alston,  Jr.,  Archi 
bald  McBryde,  Joseph  Pearson,  Richard  Stanford 
and  John  Stanly,  all  of  North  Carolina,  voted  favor 
ably  to  the  bank. 

Early  in  the  session  Macon  introduced  a  resolu 
tion  for  amending  the  United  States  Constitution 
as  follows:  "Resolved,  that  no  Senator  or  Repre 
sentative,  after  having  taken  his  seat,  shall,  during 
the  time  for  which  he  was  elected,  be  eligible  to 
any  civil  appointment  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  nor  shall  any  person  be  eligible  to 
any  such  appointment  until  the  expiration  of  the 
Presidental  term,  during  which  such  person  shall 
have  been  a  Senator  or  Representative."2  This 
proposed  amendment  of  his  was  the  outcome  of 
long  fixed  opinion  on  the  subject.  Opinion  in 
North  Carolina  at  that  time  was  almost  a  unit  with 
him,  and  his  letters  before  this  time  gave  expres 
sion  to  much  of  his  disgust  at  the  nepotism  growing 
up  around  the  presidency  and  the  great  departmental 
offices.  His  plan  was  clear  enough  and  wise  enough 
but  it  never  realized.  It  might  find  no  easy 
road  through  Congress  to-day,  if  we  may  judge  by 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  826. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  386. 


270  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

the  appointments  of  a  recent  administration.  He 
made  several  speeches  in  behalf  of  his  plan ;  in  these 
he  does  not  appear  to  disadvantage  to  all  those  who 
love  purity  in  politics  and  unselfish  devotion  to  the 
public  good.1 

At  this  same  session  Macon  became  a  powerful 
advocate  of  the  embryo  policy  of  Southern  expan 
sion  to  meet  Eastern  aggression.  We  have  seen 
how  he  advised  Jefferson  in  1803  to  purchase  Flor 
ida  on  any  reasonable  terms.  The  purchase  of 
Louisiana  was  in  entire  accord  with  his  ideas  of 
wise  policy.  But  Louisiana  had  not  been  bought 
without  a  protest  from  Eastern  members.  Now 
when  Orleans  begins  to  knock  at  the  doors  of  Con 
gress  for  admittance  as  a  "free  and  independent 
republic,"  as  Macon  was  fond  of  saying,  the  forces 
of  Federalism  rallied  a  last  time  under  the  leader 
ship  of  the  brilliant  declaimer,  Josiah  Ouincy. 
They  asserted  that  the  Constitution  would  not  allow 
new  States  to  be  carved  out  of  the  purchased  terri 
tory  west  of  the  Mississippi,  that  only  states  within 
the  bounds  of  the  old  Northwest  territory  could  ever 
hope  to  enter  the  Union.2  Macon  had  no  patience 
with  such  distinctions.  He  declared  that  "the 
right  of  creating  States  out  of  acquired  territory" 
was  one  which  he  had  always  contended  for;  and 
it  had  been  stated  by  at  least  one  of  those  who  had 
formed  the  Constitution,  that  this  article  had  refer 
ence  to  Canada.  "New  states  may  be  admitted  by 
Congress  into  the  Union.  At  the  time  this  provis 
ion  was  made,  Florida  and  Louisiana  were  not 
thought  of.  Canada  was  the  territory  kept  in  view."3 
Quincy  expressed  the  view  of  his  section  when  he 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  454 -'55. 

2  Annals  of  Congress  nth  Cong.,  III.,  January ;  see  Josiah  Quincy  and 
others. 

3  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  i8io-'n. 


MACON    A    NATIONAL,   CHARACTER.  271 

vehemently  declared:  "If  this  bill  passes  it  is  my 
deliberate  opinion  that  it  is  virtually  a  dissolution 
of  this  Union ;  that  it  will  free  the  states  from  their 
moral  obligation  and  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all, 
so  it  will  be  the  duty  of  some  definitely  to  prepare 
for  a  separation,  amicably  if  they  can,  violently  if 
they  must."1  The  question  in  the  angry  dispute  on 
the  first  attempt  to  create  a  state  out  of  the  territory 
beyond  the  Mississippi  was  not  one  of  constitution 
ality  so  much  as  one  of  interest.  Going  beyond  the 
great  river  meant  an  almost  illimitable  expansion  of 
the  South.  The  South  was  agricultural,  rural; 
New  England  commercial,  urban  in  character; 
the  former  dependent  on  plenteous  slave  labor,  the 
latter  on  an  active,  bustling,  free  life  and  competi 
tion.  By  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  the 
South  had  a  larger  representation  on  account  of  the 
negroes  than  a  similar  free  population  of  the  North. 
So  far  in  the  history  of  the  Union  the  balance  of 
power  had  been  held  by  the  Middle  States.  These 
wrere  now  beginning  to  ally  themselves  with  New 
England  (protective  tariff  policy  above  referred  to) 
which  would  bring  the  South  as  it  then  was  into 
a  helpless  minority  and  the  East  would  rule.  Since 
1803  the  South  had  been  expanding  toward  the 
Southwest.  It  was  now  about  to  reap  permanent 
reward  from  this  expansion.  This  was  not  to  be 
allowed.  To  gain  some  voters  in  the  Middle  States 
the  cry  was  raised  against  the  monster  iniquity  of 
the  South — slavery.  It  was,  however,  the  old  ques 
tion  of  dollars  and  cents  which  has  decided  so  many 
of  the  great  issues  recorded  in  human  history. 
Macon  demanded  admission  for  his  new  State  be 
cause  of  the  advantage  it  would  give  his  party  in 
Congress.  Quincy  threatened  to  secede  should  the 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  nth  Cong.,  III.,  526. 


272  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

new  State  come  into  the  Union  because  of  the  com 
parative  loss  his  party  would  sustain. 

The  subject  was  postponed  till  the  next  session 
and  Congress  came  to  an  end  again  without  having 
done  anything  but  wrangle  and  draw  salaries.  Many 
old  members  returned  home  on  that  fourth  o'f 
March  never  again  to  occupy  a  seat  in  the  National 
Legislature.  The  next  elections  fulfilled  a  proph 
ecy  made  on  the  floor  of  the  House  at  the  pre 
vious  session,  that  the  people  were  going  to  send 
more  aggressive,  more  progressive  men  to  Congress 
next  time.  It  was  the  yielding  of  the  old  Revolu 
tionary  statesmen  and  politicians  to  the  rising  influ 
ence  and  power  of  young  America — the  first  stage  of 
the  revolution  of  1828.  But  Macon  was  not  super 
seded.  He  went  home  still  sure  of  his  place  in  the 
affections  of  his  constituents — better  constituents 
from  his  point  of  view  than  those  of  whom  Ran 
dolph  boasted  so  often  and  so  loudly. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

REVOLUTION   IN   CONGRESS  AND  THE  WAR  OF   l8l2. 

Before  the  assembling  of  Congerssjn  1811,  Macon 
noted  a  significant  change  in  the  Administration,  a 
change  which  would  have  made  his  bill  No.  I  a  suc 
cess.  It  was  the  appointment  of  Monroe  as  Secretary 
of  State.  Macon  had  for  a  short  time  in  1806  favored 
Randolph's  plan  of  making  Monroe,  instead  of  Mad 
ison,  President.  He  seems  to  have  been  slightly 
opposed  to  Monroe  in  1811 ;  he  wrote  Nicholson  in 
April :  "Can  you  tell  me  how  the  change  in  the  De 
partment  of  State  came  about.  The  office  of  State 
seems  to  be  the  path  to  the  Presidency,  and  the  mis 
sion  to  Russia  a  sort  of  political  death  bed,  notwith 
standing  J.  Q.  A.  has  been  made  a  Judge.  The  his 
tory  of  the  transaction  I  should  like  to  know.  *  : 
By  the  by,  it  seems  to  me  that  Monroe  will  be  hard 
pressed  with  British  negotiations  on  account  of  the 
treaty  he  made  which  Mr.  J.  would  not  lay  before 
the  Senate." 

Madison  had  at  last  resolved  to  rid  his  cabinet  of 
its  intriguing  members.  He  flattered  Virginia  and 
at  the  same  time  delighted  the  West  by  appointing 
Monroe  to  the  Department  of  State.  It  was  mak 
ing  an  end  also  of  the  political  schisms  in  the  Re 
publican  ranks.  It  completed  the  isolation  of  Ran 
dolph  and  his  little  group  of  followers,  of  whom 
Richard  Stanford,  of  North  Carolina,  was  a  typical 
member. 

When  Congress  assembled  a  month  earlier  than 
usual,  with  the  special  purpose  of  settling  the  quar 
rel  with  England,  it  was  plain  to  any  one  that  a  revo 
lution  had  taken  place.     The  time  had  passed  for 
18 


274  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Macon  and  Randolph  and  other  old  leaders  to  take 
the*  direction  of  affairs  into  their  hands.  Macon 
and  the  peace  Republicans  had  been  given  a  fair 
opportunity  at  the  last  session  to  settle  the  great 
problems  before  the  Nation.  On  account  of  factions 
in  their  own  ranks,  more  especially  in  the  Cabinet, 
nothing  had  been  accomplished.  Congress  had 
"made  great  haste,"  as  Macon  himself  said,  "to  do 
nothing."  Six  long  months  had  been  spent  in  do 
ing  nothing  in  this  way,  and  the  country  was  sick 
and  tired  of  speeches ;  and  not  a  few  saw  the  cause 
of  it  all  in  the  President's  lack  of  decision.  Madison 
was  not  popular  during  the  summer  of  1811.  But 
the  revolution  had  now  come.  The  new  members 
from  the  West  and  South  were  the  products ;  Clay, 
tired  of  the  slow-going  Senate,  where  he  was,  in 
deed,  out  of  place,  entered  the  House,  and  on  the 
same  day  was  made  Speaker.  Calhoun,  Grundy, 
Lowndes  and  Cheves  were  the  other  young  South 
erners  who,  violating  at  the  very  beginning  the  cus 
toms  of  the  House,  pushed  forward  so  strongly  as 
to  get  tilings  into  their  hands  within  a  month's  time. 
It  was  young  America,  conscious  of  its  rising  im 
portance  and  ready  for  a  conflict,  even  without 
arms,  \vith  any  nation  that  refused  to  recognize  its 
rights  and  privileges  as  "a  free  and  independent 
power." 

What  would  Macon,  the  conservative,  cautious, 
experienced  politician  do  under  these  new  condi 
tions?  And  how  would  North.  Carolina  view  the 
change?  are  questions  we  naturally  ask  ourselves. 
Macon  had  already  concluded  to  vote  for  war, 
though  he  more  than  ever  dreaded  its  consequences. 
As  for  the  North  Carolinians,  they  were  hopelessly 
divided.  The  dissatisfaction  with  Madison  and  the 
failure  of  the  Macon  bills  at  the  last  session  had  not 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  275 

been  without  effect  on  the  party  politics  of  that  State. 
New  Bern  and  the  surrounding  country  sent  Judge 
Gaston,  a  Federalist,  to  the  House;  the  Salisbury 
district,  never  slow  to  yield  to  the  embraces  of  the 
same  party,  sent  Joseph  Pearson  back  after  an  ab 
sence  of  ten  years ;  Archibald  McBryde,  of  Fayette- 
ville,  was  another  Federalist ;  and  Willis  Alston,  of 
Halifax,  voted  as  often  with  one  party  as  the  other ; 
the  dissipated  and  somewhat  uncertain  Lemuel 
Sawyer,  from  the  Edenton  section,  went  entirely 
over  to  the  Federalists;  and  Richard  Stanford  had 
long  since  become  the  counterpart  of  Randolph,  and 
with  Randolph  voted  favorably  to  the  interests  of 
England,  because,  forsooth,  the  English  gentleman 
was  to  him  the  most  perfect  type  of  the  human 
species.  Macon,  Meshack  Franklin,  from  Surry,\ 
and  William  R.  King,  a  talented  new  member  from 
Sampson,  were  almost  alone  in  their  support  of 
Administration  measures  and  of  ancient  Republican 
manners.  North  Carolina  was,  in  fact,  becoming 
doubtful  territory  again,  and  the  Democrats  were 
casting  about  to  find  a  way  to  "save  the  State." 
Some  were  proposing  the  appointment  of  Presiden 
tial  electors  by  the  Legislature,  instead  of  by  popular 
vote,  in  order  to  prevent  the  districts  of  New  Bern, 
Fayetteville  and  Salisbury  from  giving  ttfeir  votes 
to  the  opponents  of  Madison.  But  the  plan  was 
not  yet  matured.1 

When  Porter,  of  New  York,  reported  for  the 
committee  on  Foreign  Relations  that  all  hopes  for 
a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  quarrel  with  Great  Brit 
ain  must  be  given  up,  that  the  army  should  at  once 
be  increased  to  13,000  men,  that  50,000  volunteers 
should  be  called  for,  that  the  State  militias  should 
be  put  in  readiness,  and  that  the  navy  should  be 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  rath  Cong.,  I.,  836. 


276  NATHANIEL,   MACON. 

equipped  for  service  and  merchant  vessels  allowed  to 
arm  themselves,  Macon  joined  heartily  in  these 
measures  of  the  younger  party  leaders.  Warlike 
speeches  were  made  on  every  hand,  and  Macon, 
"peace"  man  that  he  had  always  been,  declared  that 
the  time  for  war  had  come.  Still  his  super-cautious 
nature  impelled  him  to  insist  on  the  most  open  and 
accurate  statements  from  the  Administration  as  to 
the  number  of  troops  for  the  national  service. 
Where  the  States  commanded  the  troops  he  asked 
no  questions.  Grundy,  of  Tennessee,  Lowndes, 
Calhoun,  and  all  the  new  members  from  the  South, 
were  clamorous  for  the  adoption  of  the  Porter  reso 
lutions  looking  to  war.  Randolph  employed  all  his 
wit  and  sarcasm  to  defeat  them.  Richard  Stan 
ford,  of  North  Carolina,  made  a  strong  speech 
against  war  and  the  proposed  invasion  of  Canada, 
to  which  William  R.  King  replied:  "Sir,  the  demon 
avarice,  which  benumbs  every  warm  emotion  of  the 
soul,  has  not  yet  gained  the  ascendency  in  the 
South.  *  *  *  Our  country  is  agricultural,  but 
so  intimately  blended  with  commerce  that  one  can 
not  long  exist  unaided  by  the  other.  Sir,  I  will  not 
yield  an  inch  of  ground  when,  by  so  doing,  I  destroy 
an  essential  right  of  my  country — or  sap  the  foun 
dation  of  that  independence  cemented  by  the  blood 
of  our  fathers.  We  were  told  by  a  gentleman  from 
Virginia  (Randolph),  a  few  days  since,  that  we 
have  sufficient  cause  for  war.  I  ask  you,  then,  why 
do  we  hesitate  ?  Shall  we  always  yield  ?  The  adop 
tion  of  this  resolution  is  the  touchstone — by  it  we 
rise  or  fall."2  King  concluded  by  denouncing  the 
policy  of  his  colleagues,  who  still  advocated  com 
promise  and  peace.  This  bold  language  which 
called  on  the  commercial  sections  of  the  country  to 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  i2th  Cong.,  I.,  517-518' 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  277 

join  the  agricultural  South  in  an  aggressive  war 
against  England  was  new  to  the  Republicans.  _  It 
was  the  language  of  buoyant  young  America,  which 
could  no  longer  be  restrained  by  the  bonds  of 
party. 

In  a  second  speech  on  the  Porter  resolutions,  Ma- 
con  appeared  to  no  advantage,  favoring  war  and  yet 
opposing  the  Government's  plan  for  increasing  the 
army.  His  immovable  confidence  in  militia  arma 
ments,  not  the  fear  of  the  unpopularity  of  voting  a 
tax,  explains  his  speech;  for  every  member  of  the 
House  seems  to  have  entertained  the  greatest  re 
spect  for  his  character.  Men  went  out  of  their  way 
to  pay  him  deference  as  a  man  and  patriot,  though 
not  so  often  now  as  a  political  leader. 

Early  in  the  session,  Gallatin  made  a  report  to 
Congress  which  encouraged  the  "war  hawks"  to 
assume  a  still  more  defiant  attitude  toward  Great 
Britain.  The  Secretary  had  practically  assured  the 
legislature  that  he  could  meet  the  expense  of  war, 
even  without  laying  an  additional  tax.  The  com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Relations  and  Cheves'  committee 
on  Naval  Affairs,  both  supported  by  Clay's  anima 
ting  and  fiery  eloquence,  reported  still  more  aggres 
sive  plans  than  they  had  at  first  been  willing  to  risk. 
And  while  Gallatin  was  reasoning  with  the  House 
in  order  to  prevent  the  over-stepping  of  the  bounds 
of  his  estimates,  the  Republican  governors  and  legis 
latures  throughout  the  country  began  to  send  in 
their  resolutions  of  applause  and  assurance  of  hearty 
support ;  the  militia  of  the  South  and  Southwest  was 
volunteering.  Madison  was  like  to  lose  his  head, 
as  John  Adams  had  done  in  1798.  The  Federalists, 
as  a  party,  stood  somewhat  aloof  until  the  large  ap 
propriations  for  the  army  and  navy  came  up,  when 
they  voted  consistently  enough  with  the  majority. 


278  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

These  institutions  had  always  been  their  pets.  Per 
chance  a  way  of  escape  from  war  might  be  found, 
and  then  woe  to  the  party  which  had  built  up  these 
branches  of  the  public  service. 

This  was  not  to  come.  On  March  n,  when  the 
Gallatin  explanations  of  his  former  over-sanguine 
estimates  were  exasperating  the  House,  Madison 
sent  to  Congress  a  batch  of  papers  which  proved  to 
be  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  Federalist  party. 
These  were  a  series  of  letters  to  and  from  an  Eng 
lish  agent  in  New  England,  John  Henry  by  name. 
The  papers  had  been  purchased  from  Henry  at  a  cost 
of  $50,000.  Henry  had  been  sent  to  Massachusetts 
by  Sir  James  Craig,  Governor  of  Canada,  to  pro 
mote  secession  from  the  Union  by  the  New  England 
States  in  1809,  when  embargo  was  bearing  so 
heavily  upon  that  section.  The  mission  of  Henry 
was  not  without  a  cause.  The  Legislature  of  Mas 
sachusetts  was  ready  to  call  a  Congress  of  Eastern 
States  to  consider  the  subject  of  secession.  Quincy, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  deliberately  advocated 
separation  of  the  New  England  States  from  the 
Union.  Henry  had  reported  to  his  government 
that  Eastern  politicians  favored  secession,  but  that 
it  was  doubtful  whether  they  would  take  the  final 
step  except  as  a  last  resort  against  Jefferson's  em 
bargo.  No  names  had  been  given  in  the  Henry 
reports,  and  the  closest  investigations  revealed  no 
traitorous  relations  to  have  been  established  so  far 
as  the  Federalists  were  concerned.  At  least  at  that 
time  no  prominent  Federalist  was  found  to  be 
guilty  of  overt  acts.  The  reception  given  the  dis 
credited  English  Minister,  Jackson,  in  1807,  in  New 
England,  already  referred  to,  pointed  out  clearly 
enough  the  road  New  England  leaders  would  have 
taken  had  the  way  been  open.  John  Quincy  Adams 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  279 

in  his  history  of  New  England  Federalism,  says 
that  not  only  neutrality  in  the  event  of  war,  but 
actual  support  of  the  English,  was  the  aim  of  many, 
chief  among  whom  was  good  Timothy  Pickering. 
That  disgruntled  member  of  the  Adams  Cabinet  had 
suggested  Henry's  mission.1  And  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  Josiah  Quincy,  while  a  leader  in  Con 
gress,  was  suggesting  to  the  English  Minister  how 
to  bring  America  to  terms. 

The  papers  served  to  let  the  world  know  what 
England  was  doing  in  time  of  peace,  and  what  Mas 
sachusetts  might  do  in  the  event  of  war.  Congress 
was  excited;  animated  debates  followed,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  country  were  turned  toward  Bos- 
tori,  this  time  with  strong  distrust. 

Macon,  always  a  staunch  partisan,  refrained  in  a 
short  speech  on  referring  the  papers  to  the  commit 
tee  on  Foreign  Relations,  from  going  further  than 
to  rebuke  the  Federalists  who  were  trying  to  laugh 
down  the  whole  proceedings,  and  declaring  that 
both  England  and  France  were  accustomed  to  main 
tain  spies  in  America.  He  concluded :  "Our  affairs 
are  in  such  a  state  that  we  must  try  what  has  been 
called  the  last  resort  of  kings.  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  on  the  subject,  and  whenever  we  are  ready  to 
declare  war,  I  shall  vote  for  it."2 

Macon  was  early  given  the  opportunity  of  casting 
such  a  vote.  After  a  session  of  preparatory  meas 
ures,  and  the  passage  of  a  sixty  days'  embargo,  the 
plan  of  a  special  mission  to  England,  with  Bayard 
as  its  chief,  was  proposed.  This  was  to  be  another 
last  resort  at  settling  our  difficulties.  This  embargo 
was  calculated  to  give  support  to  the  American  en 
voys;  but  Madison,  with  public  sentiment  strongly 

1  Schouler,  II.,  384. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i2th  Cong.,  II.,  1191. 


280  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

in  favor  of  hostilities,  gave  the  peace  proposition 
scant  consideration.  June  4,  the  House  passed  a 
bill  declaring  war,  and  Macon  gave  it  his  hearty  sup 
port.  North  Carolina's  delegation  was  divided, 
however,  owing  to  the  recent  gains  of  the  Federalists 
in  that  State.  Joseph  Pearson,  Archibald  McBryde 
and  Richard  Stanford,  two  Federalists  and  one  Dem- 
crat,  voted  against  war.  The  Senate,  on  June  18, 
concurred  with  the  House  resolutions,  and  open 
hostilities  began.1 

When  Congress  met  again  in  November,  Macon 
was  promptly  placed  on  the  committee  on  Foreign 
Relations,  along  with  Grundy  and  Calhoun.  Before 
the  war  began,  Macon  had  favored  the  invasion  of 
Canada,  as,  indeed,  had  all  the  Republicans.  The 
annexation  of  Canada  had  been  looked  forward  to 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution.  It  had  been 
contemplated  by  the  Constitutionalists  of  1789. 
What  was  more  natural  now  than  to  round  up  our 
northern  boundaries?  At  the  same  time,  Macon 
declared  openly  that  he  went  to  war  for  sailors' 
rights :  "One  part  of  the  nation  delights  in  using 
the  sea ;  another  in  agriculture ;  we  supply  each 
other's  wants;  we  ought  never  to  dream  of  separa 
tion."2  Yet  it  was  at  this  time,  as  it  had  ever  been, 
Macon's  policy  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  in  this  quite  generous,  since 
any  annexation  from  Canada  could  mean  no  other 
than  increase  of  the  influence  of  the  Northern  States. 
It  was  an  imperial  democracy  which  he  would  see 
expand  in  all  directions.  While  the  East  and  North 
were  constantly  chiding  him  for  desiring  to  admit 
new  States  from  the  Southwest,  in  order  to  extend 
slavery,  he  without  hesitation  advocated  the  exten- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i2th  Cong.,  II.,  i632-'34  ;  Schouler  II.,  396. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i2th  Cong.,  II. ,  1191. 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  281 

sion  of  our  boundaries  in  the  North,  where  only  free 
states  could  be  expected  to  be  created. 

War  had  been  made,  but  Congress  and  the  Ad 
ministration  were  not  sure  as  to  the  reality  of  public 
support,  and  hence  the  first  campaign  was  but  feebly 
supported  by  the  authorities  in  Washington. 

The  re-election  of  Madison  was  a  matter  of 
greater  concern  to  most  of  the  politicians  at  the 
National  capital  than  the  vigorous  prosecution  of 
the  war.  The  Democratic  members  of  Congress 
met  in  caucus  late  in  May  to  determine  on  their 
candidates.  Madison  and  Gerry  were  chosen,  not 
without  much  dissent,  for  Madison  was  not  a  Jef 
ferson.  De  Witt  Clinton,  nephew  of  the  deceased 
Vice-President,  calculating  on  the  influence  of  the 
New  England  States  and  his  own  popularity  in  New 
York,  now  deserted  the  Republican  ranks  to  become 
the  standard-bearer  of  the  Federalists.  Macon  wrote 
concerning  this  political  move:  uMr.  Adams  long 
since  wrote  to  his  friendPinckneythat  they  had  fallen 
on  evil  times.  We  certainly  live  in  strange  ones.  Mr. 
Adams  is  the  leading  candidate  on  the  Republican 
ticket  for  the  election  of  P.  and  V.-P.,  and  De  W. 
Clinton,  the  Federal  candidate.  Mr.  A.  was  always, 
in  my  opinion,  an  honest  man,  but  still  that  does  not 
change  the  strange  appearance  he  and  Mr.  Clinton 
make  in  the  present  contest  for  the  Presidency."1 
There  was  great  dissatisfaction  with  the  caucusing 
methods  of  Congress.  In  New  York  and  New  Jer 
sey  this  dissatisfaction  was  so  widespread  as  to 
turn  the  tide  again  in  favor  of  the  Federalists.  New 
York,  too,  gave  its  support  to  its  favorite  son.  Penn 
sylvania,  Jefferson's  second  Republican  pillar  of  the 
Union,  remained  faithful  to  the  Administration, 
though  there  was  much  clamor  raised  against  unpop- 

i  Letter  to  Joseph  H.  Nicholson,  November  7,  1812. 


282  NATHANIEX   MACON. 

ular  Gallatin  and  his  Virginian  friends.  Virginia 
and  the  West  were  firm  in  their  support  of  Madison 
and  war.  North  Carolina  was  witnessing  a  change 
in  its  politics  and  public  men  not  unlike  that  which 
had  come  with  Clay  into  Congress  in  1811.  Strong 
men  were  entering  politics,  and  that,  too,  on  the 
side  of  the  opposition.  Judge  Gaston,  the  Pearsons, 
and  others  were  threatening,  in  the  summer  of  1812, 
to  carry  the  State  for  Clinton.  It  will  be  remem 
bered  that  the  Clintons  were  popular  in  North  Caro 
lina  as  States'  Rights  men.  Madison  had  been 
unpopular  there  in  1808.  In  order  to  make  sure  of 
the  result,  the  Republican  Legislature  of  1811 
changed  the  mode  of  choosing  Presidential  electors. 
It  had  always  been  done  by  popular  vote  in  districts ; 
it  was  now  to  be  left  to  the  Assembly,  which,  it  was 
conceded,  would  be  safely  Republican.  In  this  way 
Madison  was  given  the  full  strength  of  the  State.1 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  had  been  doubtful ;  but 
the  result  showed  that  the  Jefferson  party  still  had 
the  upper  hand  there.  Madison  was  re-elected  by 
a  vote  of  128  to  89,  a  canvass  of  the  vote  showing 
that  the  Potomac,  with  the  exception  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  was  the  dividing  line  between  the  candidates, 
between  agriculture  favoring  war  and  commerce  op 
posing  it.  Federalist  or  commercial  states  had  gen 
erally  chosen  their  electors  by  the  indirect  method 
of  election,  by  their  legislatures;  the  Republican 
States  had  usually  pursued  the  opposite  method,  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  more  democratic,  but  now 
they  were  making  exceptions  to  their  rule.  The 
contest  of  1812  was  for  a  time  regarded  as  quite 
doubtful,  hence  the  change  in  North  Carolina.  But 
the  sense  of  fair  play  and  almost  instinctively  demo 
cratic  leanings  of  the  people  compelled  the  next 
Legislature  to  return  to  its  former  practice. 

i  See  Gastcm's  speech,  Annals  of  Congress,  January,  1804. 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  283 

James  Madison,  even  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances,  was  the  last  man  prominent  in  public 
affairs  who  wrould  have  been  called  a  War  president, 
He  had  been  no  soldier  in  the  Revolution ;  had,  like 
Jefferson,  hated  the  very  name  of  war.  What 
would  he  now  do  in  a  great  contest  with  England, 
and  that,  too,  when  the  country  was  woefully  ill- 
prepared,  and' when  a  refractory  element  of  his  own 
party  stood  ready  at  any  time  to  embarrass  his  oper 
ations  ?  The  event  was  worse  than  might  have  been 
expected.  An  American  army  invaded  Canada,  to 
be  sure,  but  that  was  all.  On  the  sea  some  credita 
ble  show  was  made,  but  England  was  only  playing 
war  with  her  erstwhile  revolted  colonists.  Madison, 
in  his  longing  for  some  stay,  some  strong  hand 
on  which  to  rest  his  administration,  was  seriously 
contemplating  making  Henry  Clay  a  general,  and 
entrusting  to  him  the  field  operations,  as  he  had  done 
those  of  Congress ! 

Massachusetts  protested  against  the  invasion  of 
an  "innocent  and  friendly  people,"  and  sent  her 
protest  to  Congress  in  November,  1813;  the  South 
rallied  the  more  strongly  to  Madison's  administra 
tion.  A  high  tariff  was  laid,  to  wrhich  New  England 
responded  by  wholesale  smuggling.  The  commit 
tee  on  Ways  and  Means  proposed  a  direct  tax,  a  most 
dangerous  step  for  any  party  to  pursue;  but  this 
was  voted  down,  Macon  doing  his  utmost  to  prevent 
its  passage,  doubtless  remembering  what  havoc  a 
former  direct  tax  had  done  in  the  Federalist  ranks. 

In  February,  1814,  Maryland  remonstrated 
against  the  war,  and  in  the  debate  which  followed 
the  presentation  of  the  remonstrance,  it  was  often 
charged  against  the  party  in  power  that  embargo, 
non-importation,  and  finally  the  war  itself,  were  all 
the  measures  of  backwoodsmen  who  knewr  little  or 


284  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

nothing  of  the  affairs  of  a  civilized  government. 
Macon  replied :  "And  when,  in  the  Revolution,  the 
back  countrymen  went  to  Boston,  a  different  senti 
ment  prevailed  there.  It  was  never  complained  of 
the  brave  Morgan,  when  he  went  there,  that  he  was 
a  back  countryman."  He  repeatedly  asserted  that 
if  the  Government  would  go  back  to  the  old-fash 
ioned  war  methods  of  the  Revolution,  we  should 
win.  Just  what  those  methods  were  he  did  not 
explain.  In  fact,  Macon  knew  little  about  military 
affairs ;  he  was,  by  his  intense  dislike  of  all  regular 
army  establishments  and  his  simple  faith  in  citizen 
soldiers,  unfit  to  pass  judgment  on  the  operations  of 
war. 

Macon  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
Congress  "to  report  on  the  spirit  and  manner  in 
which  the  war  had  been  waged  by  the  enemy."  His 
committee  sat  in  Washington  and  examined  wit 
nesses  from  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  re 
ported  to  Congress  in  July,  1813,  that  Great  Britain 
had  violated  the  rules  of  war  in  carrying  Americans 
to  England  and  placing  them  in  close  prisons  with 
out  giving  any  reason  for  such  conduct ;  that  she  had 
claimed  American  prisoners  as  subjects,  and  forced 
them  into  battle  against  America ;  that  all  American 
sailors  in  England  at  the  outbreak  of  war  had  been 
seized  and  detained  as  prisoners ;  that  flags  of  truce 
had  been  violated;  that  England  had  regularly  em 
ployed  the  Indians  by  paying  set  prices  for  all 
American  prisoners  they  would  deliver  into  the 
hands  of  English  officers ;  that  the  Indians  were  sys 
tematically  instigated  to  the  commission  of  the  most 
heinous  crimes  all  along  the  borders  by  English 
commanders.  Every  possible  crime  was  found  to  be 
commonly  practiced  by  the  enemy,  and  there  was 
sufficient  evidence  submitted,  as  it  appears,  to  war- 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  285' 

rant  the  finding.  Macon's  ancient  grudge  against 
England  was  in  no  way  lessened  by  his  experience 
on  this  committee.  His  report  was  exhaustive,  and 
his  statements  to  Congress  were  eminently  moderate 
in  view  of  the  facts  which  had  been  elicted  by  the 
investigation.1 

At  the  second  session  of  Congress,  in  March,^ 
1814,  the  deplorable  state  of  finances  was  attempted 
to  be  remedied  by  means  of  a  loan.  The  opposition 
took  this  opportunity  to  oppose  again  the  whole 
policy  of  the  Government,  and  most  prominent 
among  the  opposition  at  this  time  were  Gaston  and 
Pearson,  of  North  Carolina.  Macon  was  unequal 
to  his  colleagues,  both  in  talents  and  education,  yet 
he  made  a  very  successful  speech  in  favor  of  the 
loan  and  against  them,  in  which  he  took  occasion 
again  to  defend  his  Westerners,  "backwoodsmen," 
as  our  polished  Carolinians  insisted  on  calling  them. 
Gaston,  Pearson  and  Macon  all  spoke  of  disunion ; 
Gaston  and  Pearson  as  though  it  would  be  prefera- 
•ble  to  the  burden  of  democratic  government,  Macon 
as  though  democratic  government  throughout  the 
world  depended  on  the  continued  existence  of  the 
American  Union.  Gaston  even  charged  the  ma 
jority  with  the  responsibility  of  the  curse  of  slavery, 
which  was  getting  such  a  hold  on  North  Carolina. 
Macon  responded :  "I  sincerely  lament  that  my  col 
league  has  thought  it  necessary  to  refer  to  the  unfor 
tunate  situation  of  our  native  State;  I  agree  that 
slavery  is  a  lamentable  thing,  and  I  should  be  glad  if 
there  were  not  an  African  in  this  country.  But  slave 
or  no  slave,  I  am  determined  with  her  ( North  Caro 
lina)  ;  I  will  stick  to  her  as  well  in  adversity,  if  it 
overtake  her,  as  in  prosperity.  No  misfortune  that 
can  happen  to  her  could  induce  me  to  leave  her,  and 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  13th  Cong.,  I.,  489-492. 


286  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

I  religiously  believe  that  no  State  in  the  Union  is 
better  governed.''1 

It  was  indeed  a  strange  revolution  in  North  Caro 
lina  politics  when  Macon  voted  for  loans,  and  Pear 
son  and  his  political  friends  opposed  them.  But 
other  propositions  equally  inconsistent  with  Ma- 
con's  previous  career  were  favored  by  him  at  this 
time.  William  H.  Murfree,  a  new  member  from 
the  Edenton  district  of  North  Carolina,  reported  to 
Congress  an  extensive  plan  of  public  improvements, 
consisting  of  a  network  of  canals  designed  to  con 
nect  the  larger  towns  of  the  Carolinas  from  Nor 
folk  to  Savannah.  Macon  submitted  at  the  same 
time  a  series  of  petitions  asking  for  the  same  thing. 
The  plan  was  a  magnificent  one,  not  unlike  Clay's 
great  policy  two  years  later,  and  quite  similar  to 
the  plan  submitted  by  Archibald  Murphy  to  the 
Legislature  of  North  Carolina  some  years  later.  It 
was  the  day  of  great  schemes,  and  when  any  of  them 
looked  to  the  developing  of  North  Carolina,  Ma 
con  did  not  scruple  to  endorse  them,  though  such- 
expenditure  was  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  his 
system  of  constitutional  interpretation.2 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1814,  when  the  coun 
try  seemed  to  be  passing  through  its  darkest  days,  a 
bill  was  brought  before  Congress  for  drafting  into 
the  army  80,000  militia.  The  number  of  troops 
from  each  State  was  to  be  proportioned  according 
to  representation  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
which  naturally  would  have  borne  much  more  heav 
ily  on  the  South  than  on  the  North.  Macon  pro 
posed  an  amendment,  which  provided  for  the  draft 
ing  to  be  done  according  to  white  population — a 
change  which  meant  a  reduction  of  some  four  hun 
dred  troops  for  North  Carolina,  of  two  thousand 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i3th  Cong..  II.,  1777. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  II.,  1767. 


REVOLUTION  IN  CONGRESS.  287 

for  Virginia.1  It  was  evidently  unjust  to  fix  the 
drafts  according  to  representation  in  Congress,  for, 
as  every  one  knows,  the  negroes  counted  three- 
fifths  of  their  population  in  National  politics.  But 
figures  are  interesting.  Massachusetts,  opposing 
the  war  bitterly  from  the  beginning,  was  called  on 
for  ten  thousand  troops  ;  Virginia,  favoring  the  war, 
and  having  a  much  larger  vote  in  Congress,  was  to 
supply  nine  thousand.  And  in  the  apportionment 
of  the  proposed  direct  tax  of  the  previous  year, 
Massachusetts  was  to  have  paid  $316,000,  while  Vir 
ginia  would  have  paid  $369,000.  Macon's  amend 
ment  was  lost,  66  to  91,  Calhoun  and  the  younger 
Republicans  voting  against  it  on  the  ground  of  lib 
erality,  the  South  having  been  in  favor  of  the  war 
all  along.-  The  debate  on  the  bill  for  drafting  the 
militia  occupied  much  time.  The  bill  passed,  Ma- 
con  voting  nay,  on  December  14.  But  the  back 
woodsman,  Andrew  Jackson,  was  getting  things  in 
readiness  for  'striking  a  blow  which  would  render 
the  new  war  measure  unnecessary. 

The  events  of  the  last  days  of  1814  and  the  first 
of  1815  no  doubt  made  a  great  impression  on  Ma- 
con's  mind,  determined  and  uncompromising  enemy 
of  Great  Britain  that  he  was,  yet  not  an  opinion,  not 
a  written  word,  has  been  preserved.  His  long 
career  in  the  House  was  drawing  to  a  close.  /There 
remains  a  single  speech  to  note  and  his  re-election 
in  1815.  When  the  war  was  ended,  many  of  the 
leaders  of  the  war  movement  in  1811  favored  retain 
ing  at  least  ten  thousand  troops  in  the  regular  army. 
Calhoun  was  outspoken  in  his  defence  of  a  large 
"peace  establishment,"  as  it  was  called.  Pickering 
and  the  Federalists,  so  many  as  remained  in  Con 
gress,  at  once  joined  the  young  Republicans  in  sup- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i3th  Cong.,  III.,  713,  870. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i3th  Cong.,  III.,  882. 


288  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

port  of  a  larger  army  and  navy.  Calhoim  saw 
danger  in  Canada  still,  and  Florida  was  also  a  con 
tiguous  territory  in  possession  of  a  European  power. 
A  larger  army  than  the  old  one  (three  thousand 
men)  was  absolutely  necessary.  Macon,  true  to  his 
ancient  notions,  opposed  the  army  plan :  "If  it  (the 
treaty)  were  only  a  truce,  then  we  ought  not  to 
stop  at  ten  thousand  men ;  instead  of  disbanding  our 
forces  we  ought  to  go  on  recruiting  them.  During 
all  the  trouble  with  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  the 
standing  army  consisted  of  one  brigade  only.  With 
that  force  we  took  possession  of  Louisiana,  had 
maintained  and  had  kept  up  our  garrisons."  And, 
falling  back  on  his  militia  again,  he  said:  "The 
true  way  to  safety  is  the  militia,  and  the  way  to 
make  our  militia  efficient  is  to  let  them  know  that 
the  safety  of  the  Nation  depends  on  them,  and  to 
take  nothing  more  from  the  products  of  their  labor 
to  support  regular  soldiers  than  is  absolutely  neces 
sary.  In  proportion  as  men  live  easily  and  com 
fortably,  in  proportion  as  they  are  free  from  the  bur 
dens  of  taxation,  they  will  be  attached  to  the  gov 
ernment  in  which  they  live."1 

This,  perhaps,  is  the  best  expression  of  his  polit 
ical  faith  to  be  found  in  all  his  speeches  and  in  the 
few  writings  of  his  still  extant.  His  theory,  and 
experience  was  the  basis  of  his  theory,  was  that  to 
get  rid  of  an  army,  to  get  taxes  once  laid  repealed, 
was  much  more  difficult  than  to  get  armies  and  taxes 
voted.  And  every  one  who  has  reviewed  the  acts 
of  Congress  and  the  steady  growth  of  the  unrepubli- 
can  features  of  our  government,  will  admit  the  truth 
of  this  statement.  Macon  voted  again  with  the  "old 
Republicans"  on  this  measure. 

Never  did  the  legislators  of  a  nation  cease  their 

i  A.nnal«  of  Congress,  i3th  Cong.,  III.,  i22g-'y). 


REVOLUTION    IN    CONGRESS.  289 

labors  and  retire  to  their  homes  in  more  joyous 
mood  than  did  the  members  of  the  old  Thirteenth 
Congress  on  March  4,  1815;  their  last  act  provided 
for  a  day  of  thanksgiving  to  "Almighty  God  for  His 
great  goodness  manifested  in  restoring  to  these 
United  States  the  blessings  of  peace." 

The  end  of  the  war  marked  the  final  dissolution 
of  the  great  political  party  whose  overthrow  in 
North  Carolina  and  the  Union  had  been  one  of  the 
principal  objects  of  Macon's  political  life.  From 
1791  to  1815,  he  voted  against  nearly  every  measure 
they  advocated,  both  in  and  out  of  Congress.  In 
North  Carolina  he  had  succeeded  admirably  until 
the  rise  of  the  new  party  in  1811  and  1812,  until 
the  Beginning  of  a  new  era,  and  not  only  in  his  State, 
but  in  the  whole  Union.  The  people  of  North 
Carolina  had  come  to  regard  Macon  as  their  own, 
as  their  truest  representative,  and  never  once  had 
his  district  discarded  him.  His  success  in  the  War- 
renton  district,  a  highly  cultured  section  of  the 
State,  was  the  strongest  possible  proof  that  he  was 
neither  a  rough,  uncultured  man,  nor  an  old  fogy, 
but  a  man  who  reflected  the  sterner  manly  virtues 
of  the  people  themselves.  If  Randolph  ^had  the 
right  to  boast  of  his  Charlotte  county  constituents, 
certainly  Macon  could  be  proud  of  his  fellow  citizens 
of  Warren  and  neighboring  counties.  As  he  came 
to  be  one  of  the  first  figures  of  the  land,  they  boasted 
of  him,  and  when  he  favored  war  against  England, 
with  taxes  for  its  support,  they  did  not  desert  him. 
In  the  summer  of  1815,  they  returned  him  once 
again,  but  he  was  soon  to  change  his  constituency 
from  a  single  district  to  the  whole  State. 

Eleven  days  after  his  appearance  in  Washington, 
in  December  1815,  he  was  informed  that  the  Legis 
lature  of  North  Carolina  had  elected  him  to  a  seat 
19 


290  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

in  the  United  States  Senate,  to  fill  the  place  of 
David  Stone,  resigned.  Macon's  twenty-tour  years 
in  the  House  were  closed  in  the  following  sim 
ple  but  appropriate  words :  "To  the  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives : — I  deem  it  my  duty  to 
inform  you  and  the  members  of  the  House,  that  I 
have  this  day,  by  letter  to  the  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  resigned  my  seat  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  I  can  not  withdraw  from  those  with 
whom  I  have  been  associated  for  years  without 
expressing  the  grateful  sense  I  entertain  of  their 
uniform  kindness,  and  assuring  them  that  it  wall  be 
remembered  with  pleasure  during  my  life." 

His  relations  with  Randolph,  about  which  so  much 
has  been  said,  are  well  pictured  in  the  following  quo 
tation  from  a  letter  to  his  old  friend,  Nicholson, 
dated  February  I,  1815:  "Jonathan  did  not  love 
David  more  than  I  have  Randolph,  and  I  still  have 
that  same  feeling  towards  him;  but  some  how  or 
other  I  am  constrained  from  saying  anything  about 
it  or  him ;  unless  now  and  then  to  defend  him  against 
false  accusations,  or  what  I  believe  to  be  such. 
There  is  hardly  any  evil  that  afflicts  one  more  than 
the  loss  of  a  frien4  especially  when  not  conscious  of 
having  given  any  cause  for  it.  I  can  not  account 
for  the  coldness  with  which  you  say  he  treated  you, 
or  his  not  staying  at  your  house  while  in  Baltimore. 
Stanford  now  and  then  comes  to  where  I  sit  in  the 
House  and  shows  me  a  letter  from  R.  to  him,  which 
is  all  I  see  from  him.  He  has  not  wrote  me  since  I 
left  Congress,  nor  I  but  once  to  him,  which  was  to 
enclose  a  book  of  his  that  I  found  in  the  city  when 
I  came  to  the  next  session.  I  have  said  this  much 
in  answer  to  your  letter,  and  it  is  more  than  has 
been  said  or  written  to  any  other  person.  God  bless 
vou  and  vours." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

IN   THE   UNITED    STATES    SENATE,    1815-1828. 
I. 

The  later  period  of  Macon's  political  life  easily 
divides  itself  into  two  parts,  the  first  beginning  with 
his  election  to  the  Senate  in  1815  and  closing  with 
the  vote  on  the  Missouri  Compromise;  the  second 
embracing  the  years  1820  to  1828,  a  period  taken  up 
almost  entirely  with  the  almost  shameful  personal 
scramble  for  office  which  resulted  in  the  election  of 
John  Quincey  Adams,  and  with  the*  apparently  per 
manent  establishment  of  the  Clay  doctrine  of  pro 
tective  tariffs  and  internal  improvements. 

When  Macon  entered  the  so-called  upper  branch 
of  our  National  legislature,  it  was  a  different  body 
from  what  it  had  been  when  Jefferson  presided 
over  it  in  1796-1800.  The  changes  of  the  years 
1800-1804  had  substituted  a  strong  Republican  for 
the  former  determined  Federalist  majority,  so  that 
until  1812  the  Senate  was  little  better  than  a  regis 
tering  organ  for  the  party  in  power.  Great  debates 
were  practically  unknown  in  the  Senate,  even  as 
late  as  1815.  The  House  had  been  the  National 
debating  society,  and  not  infrequently  its  members 
were  twitted  with  the  remark  that  their's  was  the 
turbulent,  unruly,  democratic  branch  of  Congress. 
A  member  of  the  Senate  in  these  earlier  days  felt 
himself  immeasurably  more  dignified,  more  aristo 
cratic,  than  a  Representative,  and  the  prevailing  sen 
timent  of  Americans  of  that  time  indulged  him  in 
his  sense  of  superiority. 

But  just  after  the  War  of  1812,  when  that  brisk, 
healthy  breeze  from  the  frontier,  the  spirit  which 


292  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

had  in  fact  forced  the  nation  into  war,  became  the 
prevailing  wind  at  Washington,  a  rapid  change 
took  place  in  the  character  of  the  Senate.  It  became 
an  arena  of  debate,  of  political  contest,  the  like  of 
which  has  seldom  been  seen  in  the  world's  history. 
The  greatest  minds  of  the  country  met  there,  and, 
ignoring  some  traditional  notions  of  decorum  and 
silent  dignity,  fought  out  in  weeks  and  months  of 
able  discussion  the  issues  whose  decision  fixed  the 
destiny  of  this  western  world  of  ours.  From  this 
time  until  1860,  the  Senate  was  pre-eminently  the 
more  important  branch  of  Congress.  Among  the 
older  members  of  this  body  in  1815  were  Harrison 
Gray  Otis  of  Hartford  Convention  fame,  Samuel 
W.  Dana  of  Connecticutt,  and  Rufus  King  of  New 
York,  the  ex-ambassador  at  the  Court  of  St.  James, 
all  Federalists  of  the  old  school,  and  unfriendly  in 
the  extreme  to  the  party  in  power,  as  well  as  to  the 
energetic  younger  men  who  had  come  into  almost 
absolute  control  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
since  1811.  Jefferson's  son-in-law,  John  W.  Eppes, 
James  Barbour  of  Virginia,  John  Gailliard  of  South 
Carolina,  and  George  W.  Campbell  of  Tennessee 
were  some  of  the  more  influential  Southern  Republi 
cans.1  Macon  came  into  the  Senate  at  the  time  when 
the  change  was  taking  place ;  he  brought  a  reputation 
and  a  long  experience  in  National  legislation,  which 
entitled  him  to  the  greatest  respect.  His  standing 
in  the  country  is  perhaps  best  illustrated  by  an  arti 
cle  which  appeared  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  a  few 
years  before,  the  spirit  of  which  is  summed  "up  in  the 
following  words :  "Nathaniel  Macon,  too,  has  been 
made  the  mark  of  ridicule !  Sir,  to  what  lengths  is 
this  mad  career  to  be  pushed?  Though  I  differ 
from  N.  Macon  in  some  measures,  my  heart  does 
him  homage.  He  may  err,  but  his  integrity  soars 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  i4th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  10-20;  Schouler,  III.,  21. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  293 

a  sightless  distance  above  the  reach  of  suspicion. 
Firm,  sterling  in  his  faith,  blunt  in  his  manners,  he 
can  never  prove  a  recreant  to  his  principles.  Never 
can  I  forget  the  tears  which  streamed  into  my  eyes 
when,  during  last  winter,  I  saw  him  coming  forward 
and  leading  the  van  of  his  country's  defenders." 
And  again,  in  1812,  on  the  occasion  of  the  declara 
tion  of  war,  Macon  is  given  very  high  rank  in  the 
nation  by  the  Enquirer.1 

The  country  was  in  a  deplorable  condition  when 
Macon  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate.  There  was  a 
deficit  of  the  year  1814  of  $1,000,000.  There  was 
no  system  of  finance.  Nowhere  outside  of  New 
England  did  the  banks  redeem  their  notes  in  specie, 
the  Government  itself  being  unable  to  meet  its  obli 
gations.  A  depreciated  paper  currency  ran  riot  in 
all  the  Southern  and  Middle  States;  and  to  make 
matters  worse,  not  even  the  individual  S'tates  were 
responsible  for  their  bank  issues.  The  only  remedy 
appeared  to  be  a  second  national  bank,  the  plans  of 
which  Gallatin  had  outlined  in  1811.  Secretary  of 
Treasury,  Dallas,  good  Republican  that  he  was, 
made  the  proposition  to  Congress,  which  soon  took 
the  form  of  a  National  Bank  bill,  and  was  engineered 
through  the  House  by  Clay  and  Calhoun,  while 
Webster  opposed !  The  object  of  the  bill  was  first 
to  supersede  the  cheap  paper  issues  of  the  State 
banks  by  giving  the  people  a  sound  convertible 
national  paper  currency,  and,  second,  to  aid  the  Gov 
ernment  in  the  negotiation  and  payment  of  loans. 
The  plan  of  organization  was  strikingly  similar  to 
that  of  Hamilton's  bank  in  1791 ;  the  capital  was 
placed  at  $35,000,000,  $7,000,000  of  which  was  to 

i  These  references  apply  to  his  service  in  connection  with  the  second 
war  with  Great  Britain.  They  are  cited  at  this  point  to  show  Macon's 
standing:  in  Virginia  at  this  time,  and  especially  to  show  how  the  great 
Democratic  editor,  Thomas  Richie,  regarded  him. 


294  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

be  taken  by  the  Government,  the  remainder  to  be 
offered  to  the  public :  individuals,  corporations  and 
states.  There  were  to  be  twenty-five  directors,  five 
of  whom  were  to  be  appointed  annually  by  the  Gov 
ernment,  and  twenty  to  be  elected  by  the  stockhold 
ers.  The  Government  was  to  control  the  establish 
ment  of  branch  banks,  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  could  at  any  time  curtail  its  functions  as 
a  national  depository;  besides,  Congress  reserved 
the  right  of  examination  and  rigid  inspection  of  its 
affairs.  After  passing  the  House,  the  bill  was  re 
ported  to  the  Senate  from  the  committee  on  Finance, 
of  which  George  W.  Campbell  was  chairman,  on 
March  25,  1816;  Federalists  and  Republicans  voted 
together  for  and  against  it.  Macon  was  determined 
in  his  opposition,  based  on  the  ground  of  unconstitu- 
tionality.  When  Mason,  of  New  Hampshire,  pro 
posed  to  amend  the  bill  in  order  that  Congress  might 
redeem  its  notes  in  specie,  Macon  joined  him,  favor 
ing  as  he  did  what  he  called  "hard  money'5  currency 
alone.  And  when  King,  of  New  York,  tried  to 
modify  the  measure  so  that  not  more  than  three  of 
the  five  Government  directors  should  be  appointed 
from  any  one  State,  Macon  agreed.  As  a  last 
resort  to  defeat  the  plan  before  it  came  to  an  issue, 
Macon  voted  with  only  five  others  for  indefinite 
postponement.  The  bank  law  was  finally  passed  on 
April  the  third  by  a  vote  of  22  to  I2,1  Macon,  of 
course,  being  among  the  nays.  Macon's  colleague, 
James  Turner,2  voted  for  the  bill  and  was  not  re 
turned  to  the  Senate  at  the  next  election.  No  other 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i/jth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  235-281. 

2  It  is  worth  noting  in  this  connection,  and  it  shows  the  influence  of 
the  county  in  North  Carolina,  that  Turner  and  Macon,  both  United 
States  Senators  at  this  time,  Weldon  N.  Edwards,  M.  C.  from  that  dis 
trict,  Judge  Potter  of  the  United    States  District  Court,  and  John  Hall, 
next  year  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  new  State  Supreme  Court,  all  Jived 
in  Warren. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.          295 

course  was  to  have  been  expected  of  Macon ;  but  that 
the  ablest  Southern  democrats  should  have  joined 
forces  with  the  younger  and  less  distinguished  Fed 
eralists  of  the  North  and  East,  and  carried  through 
a  national  banking  system  which  was  in  most  essen 
tials  a  copy  of  Hamilton's  plan  of  1791,  must  have 
caused  no  little  surprise  throughout  the  country. 
The  men  who  opposed  the  bank  were  those  who  fol 
lowed  most  closely  the  policy  outlined  by  Jefferson 
while  he  was  leader  of  the  opposition;  those  who 
voted  for  it  were  the  same  men  who  incorporated 
into  their  own  creed  the  best  of  the  Federalist  plat 
form,  taking  care,  however,  to  avoid  acknowledging 
the  source  of  their  wisdom. 

For  those  who  love  party  names,  it  may  be  proper 
to  say  that  the  Republican-Democratic  party  gave 
the  country  the  bank  which  the  greatest  of  Demo 
crats,  Andrew  Jackson,  devoted  the  best  of  his  offi 
cial  life  to  destroying.  And  most  of  the  men  who 
opposed  the  establishment  of  the  second  United 
States  bank,  Webster  for  example,  made  it  the  great 
fight  of  their  lives  to  defeat  Jackson's  anti-bank 
policy  of  1832-1836.  The  country  at  this  time  was 
passing  through  a  crisis,  and  most  of  the  greater 
leaders  had  not  found  their  proper  places.  Parties 
were  going  asunder.  It  was  to  require  eight  years 
for  their  recrystalization.  The  South  was  placed  by 
Calhoun  and  Clay  in  unnatural  relations ;  it  was 
made  for  the  time  the  mainstay  of  doctrines,  anti- 
Southern,  anti-agricultural,  and  many  years  of  bit 
ter  impoverishment,  as  we  shall  see,  was  the  result., 
Macon  stood  almost  alone  among  the  greater  men\ 
of  his  time  refusing  to  be  allured  by  the  glowing 
eloquence  of  misdirected  talent,  such,  for  example, 
as  Clay's.  He  stood  as  one  crying  in  the  wilder 
ness,  not  eloquent,  not  even  a  master  leader,  yet  one 


296  NATHANIEL  MACON. 

who  by  instinct  scented  from  afar  the  dangers  for  his 
"South  country,"  as  he  begins  now  to  call  it,  against 
which  very  destiny  itself  seemed  inevitably  drifting. 

Early  in  the  next  session  of  the  same  Congress, 
and  while  Monroe  was  quietly  waiting  for  the  next 
inauguration  to  confer  on  him  the  insignia  of  power, 
Calhoun  and  Clay,  ever  resourceful  in  new  schemes, 
projected  the  famous  Internal  Improvements  policy. 
Prosperity  had  already  set  in;  the  bank,  too,  was 
working  beneficial  ends  almost  as  miraculously  as 
had  Hamilton's  twenty-five  years  before.  Peace, 
public  confidence,  and  a  buoyant  young  people, 
not  any  fiscal  or  political  agency,  brought  back  the 
years  of  plenty.  The  receipts  were  surpassing  the 
expenditures.  A  surplus — that  most  extraordinary 
of  bugbears  to  American  politicians — was  immi 
nent.  It  was  determined  by  the  young  Republicans 
"to  lay  aside  a  fund  to  be  used  for  the  purpose  here 
inafter  to  be  stated."  A  bill  actually  passed  both 
branches  of  Congress  to  lay  aside  this  sum,  which 
was  to  be  increased  from  year  to  year.  It  was 
clearly  understood  that  this  money  was  to  be  used 
on  internal  improvements. 

From  the  time  Washington  began  to  agitate  the 
plan  of  establishing  a  closer  connection  between  the 
Chesapeake  Bay,  especially  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and 
the  Northwest,  till  the  appearance  of  Clay  in  Con 
gress,  after  the  War  of  1812,  the  idea  of  public 
expenditure  for  public  improvements,  in  the  way 
of  canals  and  turnpike  roads,  had  constantly  grown 
on  the  public  mind.  Virginia,  New  York,  North 
Carolina,  and  other  States,  had  undertaken,  or  were 
about  to  undertake,  magnificent  works  of  one  kind 
or  another.  It  was  long  since  fairly  well  admitted 
that  the  National  government  was  not  empowered  by 
the  Constitution  to  collect  taxes  or  expend  public 


IN  THE  U.   S.   SENATE,   1815-1828.  297 

revenue  in  this  way.  The  States  were  left  to  under 
take  such  tasks.  Perhaps  the  greatest  advocate  of 
this  on  the  part  of  the  States  was  De  Witt  Clinton, 
whose  foresight  has  an  everlasting  monument  in 
the  greatness  and  wealth  of  New  York  City,  the  fruit 
of  his  Erie  Canal. 

But  since  the  war  was  ended  and  a  surplus  was 
threatening,  even  at  the  very  gates,  Clay  hit  upon 
the  happy  idea  of  warding  off  the  danger  and,  what 
was  equally  important  to  him,  of  winning  popular 
ity  in  the  Western  and  Middle  States. 

The  bill  looking  to  this  end  was  introduced  into 
the  Senate  on  February  10  under  the  name  of  "An 
act  to  set  apart  and  pledge  as  a  permanent  fund  for 
internal  improvements  the  bonus  of  the  National 
Bank,  and  the  United  States'  share  of  its  dividends."1 
The  wording  of  the  bill  was  enough  to  excite  Ma- 
con's  opposition,  and,  accordingly,  when  the  subject 
was  open  for  debate  he  declared  "this  to  be  a 
new  plan  of  legislation  in  this  country.  It  makes  an 
appropriation  of  millions  for  roads  and  canals,  with 
out  directing  a  cent  to  be  expended  on  any  particular 
road  or  canal.  It  is  as  incorrect  as  it  is  new  and 
against  the  invariable  practice  of  the  Government, 
which  has  been  to  make  appropriations  of  money 
as  specific  as  possible.  Who  can  tell  what  effect  this 
general  appropriation  may  have  in  a  few  years?" 
Clay  had  not  favored  a  rapid  payment  of  the  public 
debt.  Macon  now  called  on  the  Senate  to  use  this 
surplus  in  payment  of  all  National  obligations.  The 
bill  "locks  up  millions  uselessly,  for  years  to  come, 
in  the  Treasury,  which  ought  to  be  employed  in  the 
payment  of  the  public  debt.  In  time  of  peace  no 
exertion  ought  to  be  spared  to  discharge  it.  It  is  a 
safe  and  good  rule  to  pay  debts  when  you  have  the 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  i4th  Cong.,  ad  Sess.,  165. 


298  NATHANIEL,   MACON. 

means."  As  to  the  constitutionality  of  building 
roads  and  canals,  he  was  as  strict  a  constructionist 
as  ever,  and  he  had  himself  recorded  once  again  as 
opposed  to  all  latitudinarian  interpretation  of  what 
he  called  the  National  Charter.  James  Barbour,  of 
Virginia,  inconsistent  with  the  best  traditions  of  that 
State,  maintained  that  precedent  was  sufficient  justi 
fication  of  the  bill.  This  Macon  refused  to  recog 
nize;  else,  said  he,  "you  will  admit  the  alien  and 
sedition  laws  to  be  justification  of . other  alien  and 
sedition  laws.  I  am  in  favor  of  improvements  of 
every  kind,"  so  he  went  on  to  say,  "but  by  individual 
enterprise,  not  by  the  United  States."1  A  resolu 
tion  for  indefinite  postponement  failed  by  a  vote  of 
19  to  1 8,  and  the  several  attempts  at  radical  amend 
ments  failed  by  similarly  close  votes,  but  the  final 
decision  stood  20  to  15  in  favor  of  its  passage.2  In 
the  debates  on  this  bill  the  same  grounds  were  cov 
ered  as  in  the  National  Bank  discussion  at  the  pre 
vious  session,  and  in  general  both  Representatives 
and  members  of  the  Senate  took  the  same  relative 
positions,  though  the  party  of  strict  construction  in 
the  Senate  gained  the  influence  of  Campbell,  of 
Tennessee,  whose  voice  had  been  potent  in  carrying 
the  bank  scheme  at  the  previous  session.  To  the 
chagrin  of  Clay  and  the  great  delight  of  Macon, 
Madison  vetoed  the  bill,  which,  since  the  neces 
sary  two-thirds  vote  could  not  be  had,  ended  for  the 
time  this  second  scheme  of  the  Republicans  looking 
toward  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  their 
ancient  opponents. 

It  was  a  matter  of  no  little  gratification  to  Macon 
that  on  the  assembling  of  the  Fifteenth  Congress,  in 
December  1817,  the  new  President,  Monroe,  an- 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i4th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  177-179. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i4th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  101. 


IN  THE  U.   S.   SENATE,   1815-1828.  299 

nounced  most  conclusively  in  his  first  annual  mes 
sage  that  the  Executive  would  regard  any  bill  simi 
lar  to  the  Internal  Improvements  measure  of  the 
last  session  as  unconstitutional.  Though  Monroe 
admitted  unhesitatingly  that  the  improvement  of  the 
great  public  highways,  especially  those  connecting 
the  East  with  the  West,  was  good  policy,  he  was 
unwilling  to  read  into  the  Constitution  the  powers 
necessary  to  its  accomplishment  by  the  National 
government.  He  proposed  at  once  a  constitutional 
amendment  to  that  end.1 

Before  entering  upon  a  discussion  of  the  two 
great  contests  between  rival  factions  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  in  Congress  during  Monroe's  first  term, 
and  the  results  of  which  cast  a  gloom  over  Macon's 
later  political  life,  let  us  see  what  were  the  environ 
ments  of  a  member  of  the  Senate  during  Monroe's 
administration,  and  how  Macon  adjusted  himself  to 
these  environments. 

i.  Although  Monroe  was  a  good  Virginian  of  the 
old  school,  a  diligent  follower  of  Jefferson,  and  an 
exceedingly  wise  and  able  President,  he  was  not 
by  any  means  the  simple,  unaffected  man  in  official 
life  that  our  first  Republican  President  had  been. 
Monroe  desired  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  Nation, 
as  Washington  had  done,  that  is,  as  one  who  stoodj 
above  party.  Believing  party  government  to  be  an 
evil  in  the  United  States,  he  sought  first  of  all  to 
ignore  party  lines  and  to  break  down  party  barriers.2 
Jefferson  had  believed  that  parties  were  necessary 
evils  in  a  free  country;  but  Macon,  somewhat  like 
Monroe  in  this,  believed  there  should  be  only  onej 
party  in  the  country,  and  that  the  most  democratic/ 
imaginable.  The  various  plans  and  practices  of  the 

1  Schouler,  III.,  5  ;  See  Message  of  December,  1816,  Annals  of  Cong. 

2  Schouler,  III.,  5.— Monroe's  \vords  are  quoted  in  26  Niles  Register, 
160-167 


300  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

fifth  President  to  dissolve  parties  do  not  require  to 
be  reviewed  here,  except  to  say  that  he  was  so  suc 
cessful  as  to  bring  about  the  "Era  of  Good  Feeling" 
so  much  spoken  of  during  his  second  term,  just 
when  there  was  the  most  rancorous  ill-feeling  ever 
known  at  Washington,  with  two  exceptions ;  he  was 
successful  enough  not  to  meet  with  any  opposition  at 
his  second  election — a  single  elector  voting  against 
him  to  prevent  his  coming  in  the  same  category  with 
Washington  in  popularity.  But  in  matters  of  eti- 
!  quette  and  ceremony,  Monroe's  imitation  of  Wash 
ington  was  much  less  pleasing  to  Macon.  It  had 
been  determined  in  Cabinet  meeting  to  restrict  the 
free,  easy-going  manners  in  official  circles  in  Wash 
ington  so  prevalent  since  1801.  The  levees  of  Lady 
Washington  reappeared,  now  that  the  commodious 
White  House  was  complete;  only  on  stated  days 
of  the  week  were  Congressmen  expected  to  visit  the 
President,  except  on  special  business.  Washington 
City  always  responds  to  the  prevailing  sentiment  of 
the  incumbents  of  the  White  House,  so  that  balls 
and  birthday  parties  multiplied  thick  and  fast ;  fash 
ion  gained  a  greater  sway,  and  notions  of  precedence 
were  strictly  observed  by  the  ladies  of  the  Cabinet. 
All  this  annoyed  and  even  disgusted  Macon,  who 
believed  in  no  social  or  class  distinctions  "among 
freemen."  A  letter  of  his  to  a  friend  in  North 
Carolina2  gives  his  views  on  the  subject:  "There 
has  been  some  change  in  the  etiquette  among  the 
ladies,  which  has  furnished  a  subject  for  conversa 
tion;  Mrs.  Monroe  returns  no  visits,  and  Mrs. 
Adams  expects  to  be  visited  first  by  the  wives  of 
Congressmen."  And  on  the  same  theme  to  another 
friend  (Jos.  H.  Nicholson),  a  little  earlier,  on  the 

i  Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  February  8,  1818,  in  the  Macon- Yancey 
Papers  in  possession  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.          301 

occasion  of  an  invitation  to  a  Christmas  dinner,  he 
wrote:  "But  pride,  vain  pride  multiplieth  food  of 
the  plain  kind  into  such  a  variety  of  forms  and  tastes, 
that  a  plain,  respectable  countryman  who  hath 
enough  to  eat  and  to  spare  hardly  knows  the  flesh  of 
the  beef  or  any  other  animal  when  by  chance  he  hap 
pens  to  be  at  the  table  of  the  rich  in  a  commercial 
city;  so  much  has  cooking  changed  in  a  few  years 
that  one  scarcely  knows  the  name  of  a  dish ;  and  if 
he  scarcely  knows  beef,  how  will  he  find  out  the  new-x 
fashioned  pies,  puddings,  etc.  ?  •  *  *  *  There  is 
an  aristocracy  in  everything  but  downright  work. 
The  rich  can  not  bear  that  the  food  of  the  poor 
should  be  cooked  or  dressed  like  theirs,  nor  that 
they  should  use  the  same  words  to  convey  the  same 
meaning,  nor  that  their  clothes  should  be  cut  in  the 
same  fashion.  Hence,  the  constant  change  in  these 
and  many  other  things  which  concern  the  great  fam 
ily  of  mankind.  Do  not  judge  from  this  that  I  am 
unwilling  that  those  who  have  the  means  of  getting 
good  things  should  not  have  them.  I  only  object 
to  this  universal  change,  which  constantly  tends  to 
separate  the  more  fortunate  class  of  society  from 
the  less  fortunate.  *  *  *  Like  all  other  old 
folks,  I  think  the  politics  of  former  days  better  than 
those  of  the  present,  and  that  every  change  of  fash 
ion  which  tends  to  separate  farther  the  rich  and  thex 
poor  has  a  strong  tendency  to  aristocracy,  and  that\ 
these  changes  will,  if  they  have  not  already,  tend  to/ 
give  a  wide  construction  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  in  fact  to  make  it  unlimited  by  de 
grees  and  without  a  regular  amendment  in  the 
proper  and  constitutional  method.  In  no  other  way, 
it  seems  to  me,  can  any  one  account  for  the  great 
and  almost  universal  change  which  has  taken  place 
in  what  is  now  called  Republican  politics ;  *  *  * 


302  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

fashion  has  enabled  them  to  do  it,  and  fashion  will 
probably  enable  them  to  go  forward  till  it  is  [com 
pletely]  changed.  Even  religion  itself  is  not  en 
tirely  free  from  the  influence  of  the  tyrant,  fashion." 
2..  Congressmen  then  lived  in  "messes"  about  the 
city,  or  over  in  ancient  Georgetown;  kept,  as  in 
Jefferson's  time,  horses  in  their  own  hired  stables, 
and  rode  to  the  new  halls  of  Congress,  or  at  will 
out  among  the  neighboring  hills  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland  for  a  fox  chase  in  season.  Macon's 
horses  were  the  very  best  thoroughbreds,  groomed  in 
true  "Virginia  style."  Macon  lived  in  Washington, 
not  far  from  the  government  buildings,  as  he  tells 
Nicholson  in  a  letter  of  February  15,  1815 :  "I  live 
at  Mrs.  Clark's,  in  F  street,  not  far  east  of  the  burnt 
treasury  office.  Rhea  of  Tennessee,  Hall1  of  Geor 
gia,  John  Roane  and  Burwell  of  Virginia,  and 
Franklin2  of  North  Carolina.  The  house  is  about 
middling,  and  I  can  I  believe  get  a  bed  put  in  my 
room  for  you  if  you  should  visit  the  city.  Let  me 
know  a  day  beforehand,  that  the  room  may  be 
fixed."  But  life  at  Washington  was  not  all  so  sim 
ple  and  unaffected  as  that  of  Macon  and  some  of  his 
friends.  Clay  and  Webster  were  both  addicted  to 
card  playing  and  wine  to  such  an  extent  as  to  injure 
them  politically.  Randolph,  as  indeed  was  Macon  in 
this,  was  an  inveterate  card-player.  It  has  been 
said  that  Calhoun  was  almost  the  only  pure  man  in 
national  politics  at  this  time.  Whether  this  is  not 
exaggeration  the  author  will  not  undertake  to  show. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  public  life  was  not  more  ideal 
than  it  now  is,  and  that  Macon  was  an  equally 
exceptionally  pure  man  morally  and  otherwise  with 
Calhoun. 

1  Boiling  Hall,  son  of  a  Warren  county  family,  and  a  member  of  Con 
gress  for  several  terms. 

2  Meshack  Franklin,  not  Jesse,  a  former  Representative  and  Governor 
of  his  State. 


IN  THE  U.   S.   SENATE,   1815-1828.  303 

3.  As  has  been  gleaned  already  from  this  chapter, 
the  whole  trend  of  public  opinion  at  the  National 
capital  among  the  better  educated  and  more  success 
ful  classes  was  towards  a  lavish  public  expenditure. 
Lowndes  and  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina,  Mercer 
and  St.  George  Tucker  of  Virginia,  Gaston  of  North 
Carolina,  and  a  host  of  other  semi-Federalists  of  the 
South,  all  following  in  the  lead  of  Clay  and  over 
come  by  the  fact  that  our  National  income  had 
increased  from  $7,000,000  in  1815  to  more  than 
$36,000,000  in  1817,  and  by  seeing  an  annual  sur 
plus  of  $4,000,000  in  the  treasury,  were  ready  to 
launch  the  Government  on  any  sort  of  extravagant 
policy.  And  again,  as  Macon's  letter  to  Nicholson 
shows,  fashion  and  what  he  regarded  as  extrava 
gant  living,  were  coming  more  and  more  into  evi 
dence.  Clay  could  not  support  himself  on  the  six 
dollars  a  day  from  the  Government,  and  this  was 
true,  perhaps,  of  more  than  a  majority  of  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  as  is  rather  sadly  shown  by  the 
vote  on  the  increase  of  the  pay  of  Congressmen. 
Not  so  with  Macon,  whose  suit  of  "best  navy  blue, 
turn-over  top  boots"  and  immaculate  linen  cost  him 
no  more  than  they  had  cost  at  the  close  of  the  Revo 
lution,  when  the  leaders  of  Republican  society,  at 
least,  were  all  plain-lived  country  gentlemen.  His 
manner  of  living  being  very  simple,  his  "mess" 
scarcely  more  expensive  than  a  school-boy's  board 
ing  place  to-day,  there  was  small  demand  on  his 
income.  So  while  many  another  member  exiled 
himself  forever  from  the  National  legislature  by 
voting  himself  the  very  moderate  increase  of  $2  a 
day,  he  was  altogether  satisfied  with  his  former  per 
diem,  asking  no  more  of  the  people  than  had  been 
given  from  the  first. 

While  Macon  had  kept  in  line  with  his  party  in 


304  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

the  main,  Randolph  and  his  devoted  friend  Stan 
ford  had  opposed  the  war  of  1812,  had  cooperated 
with  the  opponents  of  the  Government  itself,  the 
former  going-  so  far  as  to  write  long  public  letters 
to  the  New  Englanders  praising  their  disloyalty  and 
declaring  that  an  honest  and  independent  man  could 
not  get  a  hearing  in  Virginia;  asking  himself  the 
cause  of  his  addressing  his  remarks  to  the  New 
England  press  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  one  of  her 
Senators  in  Congress,  he  said  r1    "It  is  because  the 
avenue  to  the  public  ear  is  shut  against  me  in  Vir 
ginia,  and  I  have  been  flattered  to  believe  that  the 
sound  of  my  voice  may  reach  New  England.     Nay, 
that  it  would  be  heard  there,  not  without  attention 
and  respect.     With  us  the  press  is  under  a  virtual 
imprimatur,  and  it  would  be  more  easy,  at  this  time, 
to  ^  force  into  circulation  the  treasury  notes,   than 
opinions     militating     against     the     administration, 
through  the  press  in  Virginia."     This  was  untrue; 
there  were  prominent  opposition  papers  in  Richmond 
which    simply    for   the    sake   of   fighting   Ritchie's 
Enquirer,  if  for  no  other  reason,  would  have  pub 
lished  anything  Randolph  chose  to  write  against 
Madison.     Though  Macon  was  a  life-long  friend  of 
Randolph  and  though  he  often  agreed  with  him, 
especially  about  1820,  on  leading  public  issues,  he 
was  not  now,  in  1815-1817,  a  member  of  the  group 
of  malcontents  which  Randolph  headed  and  which 
had  led  Macon  into  some  political  errors  in  1807. 
Virginia  was  not  the  object  of  his  anger  and  jeal 
ousy  as  it  was  of  Randolph ;  but  it  was  constantly 
praised  by  him  in  private  and  in  public. 

Macon's  position  was  a  difficult  one  at  this  time, 
the  beginning  of  Monroe's  administration.  Having 
favored  Monroe,  as  we  have  seen,  against  Madison 

*  Garland's  I,ifeof  Randolph,  II.,  53— letter  dated  Dec.  15,  1814. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  305 


in 


1807,  and  having  lent  himself  to  Randolph's 
scheme  of  winning  the  vote  of  Virginia  for  Monroe 
against  Madison,  and  against  Jefferson's  wish  as 
well,  then  having  broken  away  from  Monroe  and 
publicly  advocated  the  nomination  of  Gallatin  by 
North  Carolina  in  1808,  even  advising  his  constitu 
ents  to  prefer  De  Witt  Clinton  to  Madison,  and 
finally  in  a  characteristic  way  turning  to  the  sup 
port  of  Madison  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  of 
1812,  sustaining  the  Administration  heartily  against 
all  detractors,  he  had  scarce  anything  left  except  a 
stainless  reputation  as  free  from  charges  of  intrigue 
as  from  over-devotion  to  any  man  or  cause.  He 
was  respected  by  the  new  President  but  apparently 
was  not  relied  upon  as  an  Administration  leader; 
he  was  somewhat  dissociated  from  his  party  and 
could  not  play  an  important  part  for  an  administra 
tion  which  was  drifting  as  he  thought  further  and 
further  from  the  "old  Republican  doctrines."  Occu 
pying  such  a  position  relative  to  the  Administration, 
he  sustained  a  no  less  unique  one  towards  the 
real  leaders  of  Congress.  Known  for  his  almost 
parsimonious  policy  on  the  score  of  public  expendi 
ture,  Clay  and  his  brilliant  but  somewhat  windy 
following  of  young  orators  could  not  count  on 
Macon  in  anything.  His  interpretation  of  the  Con 
stitution  made  any  agreement  with  the  "young 
Republicans"  impossible.  They  tried  to  laugh  him 
down,  and  they  succeeded  well  enough  in  giving 
him  the  name  of  "old  fogy" — a  name  which  certain 
classes  in  his  own  State  delighted  after  his  death  to 
fix  in  the  public  memory  concerning  him.  Not  in 
the  confidence  of  the  President  and  out  of  harmony 
with  the  leaders  of  his  own  party,  but  supported 
almost  unanimously  in  his  own  State,  Macon's  posi 
tion  was  one  of  absolute  independence,  just  such  as 
20 


306  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

he  had  always  desired  to  occupy;  and  his  long  and 
varied  experience  made  him  one  of  the  most  impor 
tant  characters  in  the  Senate. 

Monroe's  first  care  after  being  securely  seated  in 
the  President's  chair,  as  has  been  suggested  in 
another  connection,  was  to  become  head  of  the  whole 
nation.  Any  policy  looking  to  this  end  could  not 
but  take  prime  notice  of  New  England,  torn  as  it 
was  by  faction  and  exasperated  by  a  prolonged  ex 
clusion  of  its  representatives  from  the  first  places 
in  the  national  councils.  Monroe's  original  plan 
was  to  give  each  of  the  four  sections  of  the  country, 
East,  Middle,  West  and  South,  one  representative 
in  his  cabinet,  New  England  getting  first  place,  the 
West  coming  in  for  second  honors,  as  custom  then 
arranged  things.  John  Quincy  Adams,  than  whom 
there  was  no  abler  man  for  the  place,  was  made  Sec 
retary  of  State,  thus  being  placed  in  line  of  promo 
tion  for  the  presidency.  Smith  Thompson,  of  New 
York,  was  given  the  Navy  Department,  Clay  the 
War,  and  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  the  Treasury.  This 
gave  every  section  at  least  one  position,  leaving  the 
Attorney-  and  Postmaster-Generals  still  to  be  named. 
«This  would  have  made  a  representative  and  an 
exceedingly  able  cabinet.1  But  Clay's  ambition 
would  not  admit  of  his  accepting  anything  but  the 
first  place;  he  was  aggrieved  at  Adams'  precedence 
and  he  declined  all  Monroe's  overtures.  Since  the 
plan  of  giving  Massachusetts  what  the  President's 
sense  of  fair  play  suggested  did  not  please  the  Ken 
tucky  statesman,  he  preferred  the  position  of 
Speaker  of  the  House  where  he  felt  himself  almost 
absolute,  and  from  which  vantage  ground  he  ex 
pected  to  upset  the  plans  of  the  Administration  in 
regulating  the  succession  in  1824  at  the  expiration 

i  Schouler,  III.,  13-14. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE),   1815-1828.  307 

of  Monroe's  allotted  two  terms.  Clay  intended  to 
appeal  to  the  people  against  the  President.  His 
means  of  winning  the  people  was  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives.  There  was  no  reason  why  the  Repre 
sentatives,  going  back  to  their  districts  every  few 
months  to  laud  to  the  skies  the  man  whom  they  ele 
vated  to  the  speakership  time  after  time  with  almost 
unanimous  vote,  should  not  win  £  or  him  the  desired 
precedence  over  Adams.  This  was  a  promising 
scheme  in  the  majority  of  states,  especially  since 
there  seemed  to  be  a  mutual  understanding  between 
the  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  politicians  that  the 
presidency  was  an  office  to  which  other  states  need 
not  aspire;  and  Clay  felt  that  he  was  just  the  man 
to  carry  it  out — a  similar  game  in  national  politics 
to  that  which  Andrew  Jackson  played  against  Clay 
in  1832,  with  results  far  different  for  the  initiators. 
It  was  the  selection  of  issues  which  decided  the 
contest,  not  so  much  the  man,  though  there  never 
was  a  more  popular  man  than  Clay  at  several  periods 
of  his  almost  wonderful  life. 

Monroe  threw  down  the  gauntlet  in  December, 
1817;  it  was  his  open  declaration  in  the  annual  mes 
sage  that  Clay  might  expect  a  veto  if  he  brought 
forward  a  second  time  his  favorite  Internal  Im 
provements  bill,  rumors  of  which  were  thick  about 
Washington  before  Congress  assembled.  Henry 
Clay  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  the  challenge.  St. 
George  Tucker,  of  Virginia,  whose  name  meant 
something  for  the  success  of  the  Speaker's  plan, 
brought  in  a  bill  almost  identical  with  the  one 
vetoed  by  Madison  less  than  a  year  before.1  The 
House  was  led  at  once  into  a  long  and  envenomed 
debate  on  a  bill  which  every  one  knew  could  not 
pass  over  the  President's  veto,  there  appearing  some- 

1  cf.  Schurz'  Life  of  Henry  Clay,  I.,  142  on. 


308  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

what  to  Clay's  surprise  stronger  opposition  to  inter 
nal  improvements  than  had  characterized  the  last 
Congress.  It  appears  that  the  Speaker,  interpret 
ing  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  John 
Marshall  had  made  popular  as  well  as  great  in  the 
case  of  Martin  vs.  Hunter's  Lessee,  of  the  year 
1816,  and  other  similar  decisions,  and  the  attitude  of 
the  young  Republicans  North  and  S6uth,  to  point 
to  latitudinarian  construction  of  the  Constitution  as 
the  coming  popular  view,  was  willing  to  stake  every 
thing  on  this  fight.  It  began  March  6,  1818,  and 
continued  about  three  weeks.  Clay  showed  himself 
imperious  and  overbearing,  and  though  he  carried 
his  measure  it  weakened  instead  of  strengthened 
him  in  the  nation.1  He  put  himself  in  the  same 
position  relative  to  Monroe's  administration  that 
John  Randolph  placed  himself  in  :8o6-'o7  towards 
that  of  Jefferson  and  with  similar  motives. 

The  North  Carolina  delegation  voted  against  the 
Clay-Tucker  resolutions  ten  to  two.  The  erratic 
Lemuel  Sawyer,  again  in  Congress  from  the  Eden- 
ton  section,  made  the  most  sensible  and  vigorous 
speech  of  his  life  in  opposition  to  the  Speaker  in 
this  personal  war  on  the  Executive.  George  Mum- 
ford,  of  Rowan,  and  Jesse  Slocumb,  of  Wayne,  were 
the  two  members  who  voted  for  internal  improve 
ments. 

When  the  Senate  met  and  organized  it  showed  at 
once  that  the  President  would  be  supported  heartily. 
No  trouble  was  made  about  Executive  appointments 
and  the  standing  committees  were  put  under  the 
leadership  of  men  who  were  friendly  to  the  Admin 
istration.  James  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  became 
Chairman  of  the  committee  on  Foreign  Relations, 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong,,  ist  Sess.,  1114-1402.     • 


IN  THE:  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  309 

with  Macon  as  his  first  associate;  the  committee  on 
Finance  was  headed  by  George  W.  Campbell,  of  Ten 
nessee,  Macon  being  a  member  of  this  committee 
also.  Barbour,  Campbell  and  Macon  were  all  deci 
dedly  enough  opposed  to  the  war  in  the  House.  In 
fact  before  the  standing  committees  were  appointed 
Barbour  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  Senate  call 
ing  for  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  to  enable 
Congress  to  appropriate  funds  to  public  improve 
ments.1  Barbour  had  voted  for  the  Internal  Im 
provements  bill  of  the  last  Congress,  believing  it 
to  be  legitimate  and  not  unconstitutional ;  but  he 
was  unwilling,  now  that  Monroe  had  expressed 
openly  his  scruples  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  such 
a  measure,  to  embarrass  the  Administration;  "The 
present  Chief  Magistrate  has  very  frankly  and  prop 
erly  disclosed  his  opinion,  and  decided  it  (the  pro 
posed  Clay  bill)  unconstitutional.  The  impractica 
bility  of  passing  it,  with  this  impediment,  through 
Congress  must  be  palpable.  Indeed  I  do  not  know 
that  it  is  desirable  that  it  should  be.  It  is  better, 
perhaps,  in  all  cases  of  doubt,  to  recur  to  the  peo 
ple — the  only  original  and  only  legitimate  fountain 
of  power."2  This  was  somewhat  strange  language 
for  such  a  progressive  young  Republican  as  Bar 
bour  had  been  in  the  last  Congress.  If  it  does  not 
show  a  change  of  heart  it  at  least  shows  that  as  a 
leader  -of  the  Senate  he  did  not  propose  to  allow 
that  body  to  be  drawn  into  Clay's  contest  with  the 
Executive.  The  resolution  which  Barbour  intro 
duced  was  referred  to  a  special  committee  composed 
of  Barbour,  Lacock,  Macon  and  Eppes.  The  com 
mittee  did  no  more  than  submit  the  original  Barbour 
resolution  again  which  was  indefinitely  postponed 

*  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  Sess.,  L,  21-22. 
2  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  I.,  22. 


310  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

by  a  vote  of  twenty-two  to  nine,  Barbour  and 
Macon  voting  against  postponement.1  The  House 
Internal  Improvements  bill,  and  consequent  debate, 
never  reached  the  Senate.  Macon  heartily  favored 
the  Barbour  amendment,  thus  definitely  defining  the 
powers  of  the  National  Government  on  this  subject, 
since  so  fruitful  of  public  waste  and  extravagance. 
He  wrote  a  friend2  in  North  Carolina  a  full  exposi 
tion  of  his  views  on  the  subject.  This  paper  has 
been  lost,  but  his  accompanying  letter  contains  the 
following  language  :3  "If  Congress  can  make  canals 
they  can  with  more  propriety  emancipate.  Be  not 
deceived.  I  speak  soberly  in  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  love  of  the  Constitution.  Let  not  love  of  im 
provements  or  a  thirst  for  glory  blind  that  sober 
discretion  and  sound  sense  with  which  the  Lord  has 
blessed  you.  Paul  was  not  more  anxious  or  sin 
cere  concerning  Timothy  than  I  am  for  you.  Your 
error  in  this  will  injure  if  not  destroy  our  beloved 
mother,  North  Carolina,  and  all  the  South  country. 
*  *  Be  not  led  astray  by  grand  notions  or  mag 
nificent  opinions ;  remember  you  belong  to  a  meek 
state  and  just  people,  who  want  nothing  but  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labor  honestly  and  to  lay 
out  their  profits  in  their  own  way." 

These  significant  statements  furnish  the  key,  were 
one  needed,  to  Macon's  policy  in  1820.  To  read 
into  the  Constitution  powers  not  specifically  granted 
meant  to  him  to  set  out  on  the  road  which  led 
directly  to  the  emancipation  of  slaves.  It  would 
"ruin  North  Carolina  and  all  the  South  country." 
Yancey  was  inclined  to  follow  the  young  Republi- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  i5th  Cong.,  Vol.  I.,  292. 

«  Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  April  15,  1818. 

3  Yancey  had  been  requested  to  send  him  his  opinion  on  the  subject 
while  the  Senate  committee  was  discussing  it  Yancey  had  given  an 
opinion  favorable  to  the  constitutionality  of  Clay's  doctrines. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1815-1828.  311 

cans.  Macon  desired  to  point  out  to  him  the  error 
of  his  way — an  error  which  most  of  the  brilliant 
young  Southerners,  Calhoun  for  example,  freely 
confessed  later  in  our  political  history. 

The  persistent  efforts  of  Clay  in  keeping  up  oppo 
sition  to  the  Executive  in  another  matter,  that  of 
recognizing  the  South  American  Republics,  only 
kept  the  House  in  a  turmoil;  the  subject  was  not 
so  much  as  mentioned  in  the  Senate  at  this  session. 
This  was  not  true  in  the  country  generally.  As  in 
all  such  instances  public  sympathy  ran  high,  found 
expression  among  Representatives  and  greatly  dis 
turbed  the  President  in  his  cooler,  more  deliberate 
policy.  Macon's  attitude  toward  all  these  questions 
was  one  of  "hands  off,"  except  in  reference  to  Flor 
ida,  which  again  came  to  be  much  discussed  because 
of  the  Amelia  Island  controversy.  In  consequence 
of  a  revolt  in  East  Florida  Amelia  Island  had  gained 
the  protection  of  our  government  j  many  Americans 
had  gone  there  seeking  what  fortune  there  was  to 
be  won.  Spain,  too  feeble  to  settle  her  difficulties 
in  South  America,  was  entirely  unable  to  restore 
order  in  Florida.  A  chronic  state  of  anarchy  thus  ex 
isted  on  our  Southern  borders,  and  Adams,  with  the 
hearty  support  of  Calhoun,  who  had  accepted  the 
war  portfolio  which  Clay  declined,  was  doing  his 
utmost  to  bring  about  annexation  and  thus  close  the 
question.  The  fear  of  strengthening  the  slave- 
holding  States  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  free 
States  did  not  influence  the  broad-minded  Secretary 
of  State.  For  Macon  the  annexation  of  Florida 
was  an  old  desire  dating  back  to  1803,  when  he  had 
advised  Jefferson  to  do  whatever  lay  in  his  power 
to  purchase  Florida  along  with  Louisiana.  He 
shows  his  insight  into  the  real  difficulties  of  the 


312  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

situation  in  a  letter  to  Yancey  February  8,  1818: 
"It  seems  probable  that  we  may  find  ourselves  in 
possession  of  all  or  nearly  all  Florida  without  being 
at  war  with  Spain  or  having  waited  on  her  perform 
ing  the  treaty  stipulation1  concerning  the  Indians. 
I  am  not  acquainted  with  the  intentions  of  the 
Execuive  relative  to  Amelia  Island.  *  *  *  It  is 
believed  that  circumstances  justified  driving  the 
Army  and  company  from  Amelia,  but  this  justifica 
tion  may  be  destroyed  by  improperly  holding  pos 
session."  This  was  not  very  urgent  language  for 
one  who  had  long  desired  to  see  Florida  made  an 
American  territory.  It  shows  Macon's  disposition 
to  do  strict  justice  or,  at  least,  when  this  seemed  a 
difficult  thing  to  determine,  to  proceed  very  cau 
tiously.  So  when  Jackson  a  year  later  presented 
his  fait  accompli,  he  heartily  '  disapproved  of  the 
General's  unwarranted  proceedings,  and  in  most 
characteristic  language:  "The  Constitution  gives 
Congress  the  sole  authority  to  declare  war ;  war 
has  been  waged  and  every  act  of  sovereign 
power  exercised  without  the  consent  of  Congress. 
The  constitution  has  been  violated  and  I  am  for  the 
Constitution  rather  than  for  man."2  More  than  a 
year  elapsed  before  the  tardy  Spanish  Minister 
could  be  brought  to  terms  on  the  Florida  question. 
Adams  was  hastening  matters  as  much  as  possible. 
Macon  became  impatient:  "The  Spanish  minister 
had  not  yesterday  (April  18,  1820),  I  believe,  given 
any  proof  what  he  would  do  or  what  he  expects 
from  the  U.  S.  It  is  probable  he  wishes  to  make 
a  flourish  or  two  before  he  declares  his  ultimatum." 
He  was  delighted  a  short  while  afterwards  to  see 

1  A.  guarantee  that  peace  among  the  border  Indians  and  white  adven 
turers  should  be  maintained. 

2  Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  February  7,  1819. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  313 

Florida  annexed  to  the  "South  Country"  whose 
extension  he  begins  now  to  desire  much  more 
warmly  than  in  former  years. 

Macon  began  in  1818  to  express  his  fears  that  a 
great  struggle  over  slavery  was  pending.  When  he 
wrote  Ya.ncey  that  the  passage  of  a  bill  granting 
money  for  internal  improvements  made  possible  a 
bill  for  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes,  he  desired 
rB  put  North  Carolinians  on  their  guard,  and  not 
simply  North  Carolinians,  but  all  Southerners. 
"The  South  Country  will  be  ruined,"  was  his  expres 
sion.  He  wrote  a  little  later:  "We  have  abolition, 
colonization,  bible  and  peace  societies ;  their  conten 
tions  can  not  be  known,  but  the  character  and  spirit 
of  one  may  without  injustice  be  considered  that  of 
all — it  is  a  character  and  spirit  of  perseverance  bor 
dering  on  enthusiasm.  And  if  the  general  govern 
ment  shall  continue  to  stretch  their  powers,  these 
societies  will  undoubtedly  push  them  to  try  the 
question  of  emancipation.  I  have  written  very 
freely  to  you,  and  it  is  intended  for  you  alone. 
Under  a  fair  and  honest  construction  of  the  consti 
tution  the  negro  property  is  safe  and  secure.  Besides 
the  subjects  before  mentioned,  we  can  not  forget 
that  the  Sedition  act  was  declared  constitutional  by 
the  U.  S.  Courts.  The  states  having  no  slaves 
may  not  feel  as  strongly  as  the  states  having  slaves 
about  stretching  the  constitution,  because  no  such 
interest  is  to  be  touched  by  it.  The  camp  that  is 
not  always  guarded  may  be  surprised;  and  the 
people  [who]  do  not  watch  their  rulers  may  be 
enslaved.  Too  much  confidence  is  the  ruin  of 
both."1 

The  fear  of  a  long  contest  which  Macon  felt  in 
1818  proved  not  unfounded  in  1820.  In  fact,  both 

Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  March  8,  1818. 


314  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Northern  and  Southern  leaders  began  to  foresee 
that  the  great  question  before  the  American  people 
would  be  that  of  slavery.  The  American  Coloniza 
tion  Society,  for  which  Macon  felt  no  sympa 
thy,  was  an  expression  of  the  uneasiness  of  the 
South.  Madison,  Monroe  and  Clay  encouraged  its 
work  which  was  to  advocate  and  foster  a  spirit  of 
emancipation  in  the  South  and  wherever  possible  to 
transport  the  freed  blacks  to  Liberia  in  westei*i 
Africa.  Repeated  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  North 
ern  border  Stafes  at  ridding  themselves  of  the  duty 
of  assisting  in  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves  to  their 
masters  were  made.1  Since  1808  the  African  slave 
trade  had  nominally  ceased ;  but  in  fact  it  was  con 
tinued  in  such  a  bold  way  that  Congress  finally 
(1820)  passed  a  law  making  the  slave  trade  piracy.2 
The  partial  closing  of  the  African  slave  trade  and 
the  ever-increasing  demand  for  cotton  and  tobacco, 
staple  exports  of  the  South,  so  increased  the  de 
mand  for  negro  labor  that  Virginia  and  in  part 
North  Carolina  and  Maryland  became  breeding 
grounds  for  the  more  Southern  and  Southwestern 
States.  Washington,  Norfolk  and  Richmond  became 
important  slave  markets.3  And  again  the  method 
of  pairing  a  slave  with  a  free  State  whenever  the 
territories  were  admitted  into  the  Union  shows  both 
the  determination  and  ability  of  the  Northen  people 
to  limit  the  spread  of  slavery.  The  North  had  a 
population  six  hundred  thousand  greater  than  the 
South ;  and  the  next  distribution  of  Representatives 
would  give  her  an  advantage  of  thirty-six  members 
in  the  House. 

The  fight  opened  in  the  House  in  1818  when  a 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  Vol.  I.,  225  on. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  Vol.  I.,  97  on. 

3  See  letter  of  Thomas  Ritchie  to  his  brother,  Branch  Historical  Pa 
pers,  II.,  153. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  315 

bill  for  the  territorial  organization  of  Arkansas  was 
presented.  The  partisans  of  slavery  rallied  every 
Southern  vote  on  the  question,  submitted  by  Tay 
lor,  of  New  York,  whether  slavery  should  not  be 
forever  excluded  from  the  new  territory ;  and  a  bill 
limiting  the  extension  of  slavery  was  passed  and 
sent  to  the  Senate,  which  body  struck  out  the  anti- 
slavery  clause  by  a  vote  of  thirty-one  to  seven.  On  the 
nefct  day  Burril,  of  Rhode  Island,  made  an  attempt 
to  get  a  reconsideration  favorable  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  but  failed  by  a  vote  of  only  nineteen  to  four 
teen — a  vote  which  shows  the  real  strength  of  the 
two  sections  of  the  country  in  the  Senate  as  the 
new  anti-slavery  clause  was  to  be  less  agressive  than 
the  former.  The  pro-slavery  party  won  because 
of  the  absence  of  Van  Dyke  and  Horsey,  of  Dela 
ware,  Hunter,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  by  the  votes  of 
Ohio  and  Indiana.  The  modified  bill  was  returned 
to  the  House  just  before  the  close  of  the  session 
when  a  motion  to  reconsider  the  bill  failed  by  the 
Speaker's  vote.1  There  is  no  record  of  a  speech  on 
this  subject  by  Macon. 

This  whole  movement  was  the  outcome  of  the 
desire  on  the  part  of  Missouri  and  the  South  in 
general  to  make  a  state  of  the  present  territory  of 
Missouri,  leaving  the  southern  part  of  the  original 
territory  as  a  basis  for  still  another  slave  state  a 
few  years  later.  During  the  ensuing  spring  and 
summer  public  opinion  was  wrought  up  to  the 
highest  pitch  either  for  or  against  the  admission  of 
Missouri,  that  is,  for  or  against  the  extension  of 
slavery.  A  grand  convention  composed  of  promi 
nent  men  from  all  parts  of  the  North  assembled  in 
Philadelphia  in  October;  and  in  the  Eastern  and 
Middle  States  indignation  meetings  were  held,  in  all 

i  For  the  Senate's  action  in  this,  see  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong., 
2d  Ses.o.,  272-274. 


316  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

of  which  resolutions  were  drawn  up  and  passed 
memorializing  the  next  Congress  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  Going  back  to  pre-revolutionary  practices, 
committees  of  correspondence  were  established. 
Excitement  ran  so  high  that  party  lines  could  not  be 
maintained;  Jeffersonian  republicans  and  Hamil 
ton  federalists  cooperated  now  in  pushing  forward 
a  veritable  crusade  against  Southern  expansion. 

The  South  responded  with  equal  determination 
to  this  onslaught  against  one  of  its  fundamental 
institutions.  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  looking  to  the 
successorship  in  the  White  House,  already  proposed 
to  lead;  but  a  leadersnip  that  would  win  Northern 
votes  was  necessary.  He  could  not  therefore  speak 
out  his  opinion ;  the  South  could  not  elect  him  to  the 
presidency.  Then  the  Southern  States,  through 
their  legislatures,  following  the  example  of  Virginia, 
took  up  the  burning  question.  This  brought  most 
of  the  young  Republicans  who  had  formerly  voted 
with  Clay  and  enlisted  under  his  banner  back  to  the 
strict  construction  doctrines  of  the  old  Republicans 
whom  Randolph  and  Macon  led,  though  only  in 
these  particular  policies.  Pinckney,  of  Maryland, 
was  the  great  leader  and  champion  of  Missouri  on 
the  platform;  while  the  celebrated  Thomas  Ritchie 
made  the  Richmond  Enquirer  the  champion  of  the 
States'  Rights  doctrines  based  on  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798.  Richmond,  pro 
phetic  of  her  later  destiny,  was  made  the  storm- 
center  of  the  South. 

Before  Congress  came  together  in  December, 
1819,  Massachusetts,  ready  now  to  make  great  sac 
rifice  in  order  to  regain  her  former  leadership,  had 
arranged  a  scheme  by  which  to  balance  once  more 
an  additional  slave  state.  Maine  was  the  sacrifice. 
It  was  cut  off  from  the  old  state  and,  without  pass- 


IN  THE;  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  317 

ing  through  the  territorial  probation  hitherto  cus 
tomary,  a  memorial  from  its  representatives  was 
presented  to  the  Senate  on  the  very  heels  of  the 
President's  message,  asking  admission  into  the 
Union.  Missouri  knocked  a  second  time  at  the 
Senate's  door  on  the  same  day.  But  two  days 
before  the  President  had  submitted  the  application 
of  Alabama,  which  was  immediately  referred  to  a 
committee  whose  report  was  favorable,  and  on  the 
8th  of  December,  the  date  of  the  Maine  memorial, 
was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  This 
restored  the  balance,  leaving  the  new  Florida  acqui 
sition  as  a  balance  in  favor  of  the  South  in  future 
contests.  The  House,  already  won  to  the  anti- 
slavery  influence,  hastened  through  a  bill  for  the 
admission  of  Maine;  but  the  Senate,  still  controlled 
by  pro-slavery  men,  refused  to  admit  Maine  with 
out  Missouri.  In  the  discussion  which  arose  over 
this  balancing  of  the  two  proposed  states,  Macon 
made  a  longer  speech  than  usual:  "The  appearance 
of  the  Senate  to-day  is  different  from  anything  I 
have  seen  since  I  became  a  member  of  it."  He 
then  reviewed  the  history  of  the  admission  of  new 
states  and  outlined  in  an  able  manner  what  he 
regarded  as  absolutely  essential  to  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  the  country.  "But,"  said  he,  "the 
true  reason  of  the  objection  to  the  admission  of 
Missouri  is  the  principle  to  which  gentlemen  have 
alluded  and  which  has  made  so  much  noise  out  of 
doors.  I  confess  that  on  this  question  I  have  felt 
more  anxiety  than  on  any  other  lately  presented  to 
my  view.  It  may  be  a  matter  of  philosophy  and 
abstraction  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  East,  but  it 
is  a  different  thing  with  us.  They  may  philosophize 
and  hold  town  meetings  about  it  as  much  as  they 
please;  but,  with  great  submission,  sir,  they  know 


318  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

nothing*  about  the  question."1  Otis,  of  Massachu 
setts  followed  Macon  and  referred  to  him  in  a  way 
which  shows  clearly  enough  the  respect  accorded 
•him  even  by  the  greatest  of  his  opponents,  and  it 
also  testifies  to  Macon's  own  uneasiness  of  mind  on 
this  occasion:  "With  others  (members  of  the  Sen 
ate)  a  longer  acquaintance  has  ripened  into  real 
friendship;  and  for  my  old  friend  above  me 
(Macon),  I  profess  a  sincere  affection  and  respect 
(inspired  by  a  long  experience  of  his  honorable 
character),  though  we  have  formerly  broken  to 
gether  many  a  political  lance,  and  I  am  sorry  to  dis 
cern  in  him  symptoms  of  wounded  or  excited  feel 
ings  on  the  present  occasion."2 

In  the  midst  of  the  debate,  Thomas,  of  Indiana, 
who  had  voted  against  the  slavery  clause  in  the 
former  Missouri  bill,  proposed  a  substitute  which 
became  famous  as  the  great  compromise  of  1820. 
It  provided  for  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave 
state  stipulating  at  the  same  time  that  slavery  was 
to  be  forever  afterwards  prohibited  in  the  Louisiana 
territory  west  and  north  of  the  new  state,  that  is, 
north  of  the  parallel  36  degrees  40  seconds  north 
latitude.  This  fixed  a  definite  line  which  was  to  be 
regarded  as  the  boundary  between  the  two  great  sec 
tions  of  the  country.  In  the  East  it  was  to  be  the  old 
.Mason  and  Dixon's  line  between  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania,  thence  up  the  western  boundary  of 
Pennsylvania  to  the  Ohio,  thence  along  that  river  to 
the  Mississippi,  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  northern 
boundary  of  Missouri,  then  the  northern  boundary  of 
Missouri  to  the  limits  of  the  state  where  it  dropped 
directly  south  to  the  parallel  above  mentioned.  It 
might  appear  at  first  that  this  substitute,  should  it 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i6th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  97-99. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i6th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I,  in. 


IN  THE:  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  319 

pass,  would  be  a  genuine  compromise;  but  viewed 
more  carefully  it  could  only  be  a  great  victory  for 
the  anti-slavery  party.  In  addition  to  Missouri  it 
proposed  to  give  the  pro-slavery  section  the  small 
part  of  the  original  Louisiana  purchase,  not  quite 
equivalent  to  that  now  embraced  in  Oklohoma  and 
the  Indian  Territories,  while  the  anti-slavery  sec 
tion  was  to  get  all  the  public  lands  now  embraced  in 
the  State  of  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
South  and  North  Dakota,  and  about  half  of  Colo 
rado,  Wyoming,  and  Montana.  The  North  was  to 
gain  ten  times  as  much  as  the  South. 

It  is  significant  that  Illinois  made  this  proposition 
and  that  the  old  Northwest  voted  in  the  main  with 
the  South  in  this  contest.  Still  public  opinion  in 
that  section  was  strongly  anti-Southern.1  But  the 
Thomas  substitute  was  held  back  for  some  time  in 
the  hope  that  the  Roberts  amendment,  abolishing 
slavery  in  Missouri  itself,  then  under  discussion, 
might  pass.  There  was  great  excitement  in  Wash 
ington  and  angry  threats  were  constantly  being 
made. 

It  was  at  this  stage  that  Macon  made  his  well- 
known  speech.2  Only  an  outline  of  his  argument 
will  be  given  here.  Beginning  by  repeating  the 
opening  remark  of  a  previous  speaker,  that  this  was 
the  most  important  debate  ever  held  in  the  United 
States,  that  it  required  therefore  to  be  discussed 
with  the  utmost  coolness  and  deliberation,  yet  he 
had  heard  a  great  many  hard  sayings  from  gentle 
men  on  the  other  side :  "We  have  been  told  by 
the  honorable  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Low- 
rie),  that  he  would  prefer  disunion  rather  than 
slaves  should  be  carried  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

1  See  speech  of  Senator  Edwards  of  Illinois,  Annals  of  Congress,  i6th 
Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  187. 

2  See  Peele's  Distinguished  North  Carolinians. 


320  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Age  may  have  rendered  me  timid  or  education  may 
have  caused  me  to  attach  greater  blessings  to  the 
Union  and  the  Constitution  than  they  deserve."  ( I ) 
He  then  goes  on  to  show  the  practical  impossibility 
of  ever  getting  the  once  severed  Union  back  together 
again,  and  to  lament  the  tendency  of  Senators  to 
speak  lightly  of  disunion.  The  second  point  he 
made  was  that  the  passage  of  the  Thomas  amend 
ment  would  produce  "geographical  parties,"  against 
which  Washington  had  warned  us,  whose  council 
seemed  not  to  avail  any  thing  any  longer.  "But 
party  'and  patriotism  are  not  always  the  same 
thing.  Town  meetings  and  resolutions  to  inflame 
one  .part  of  the  nation  against  another  can  never 
benefit  the  people,  though  they  may  gratify  an  indi 
vidual.  *  *  *  A  child  may  set  the  woods  on  fire, 
but  it  requires  great  exertions  to  extinguish  it.  This 
now  very  great  question  was  but  a  spark  at  the  last 
session."  (2)  On  the  question  of  the  rights  of  the  old 
states  in  the  lands  beyond  the  Mississippi,  he  said: 
"All  the  states  now  have  equal  rights  and  all  are 
content.  Deprive  one  of  the  least  right  which  it 
now  enjoys  in  common  with  the  others  and  it  will 
no  longer  be  content.  *  *  *  All  the  new  states  have 
the  same  rights  that  the  old  have ;  why  make  Mis 
souri  an  exception?  why  depart  in  her  case  from 
the  great  American  principle  that  the  people  can 
govern  themselves?  All  the  country  west  of  the 
Mississippi  was  acquired  by  the  same  treaty,  and  on 
the  same  terms  and  the  people  in  every  part  have  the 
same  rights.  *  *  *  The  amendment  will  operate 
unjustly  to  the  people  who  have  gone  there  from 
the  other  states.  They  carried  with  them  property 
[slaves]  guaranteed  by  their  states,  by  the  Consti 
tution  and  by  treaty ;  they  purchased  lands  and 
settled  on  them  without  molestation;  but  now.  un- 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE:,  1815-1828.  321 

fortunately  for  them,  it  is  discovered  that  they 
ought  not  to  have  been  permitted  to  carry  a  single 
slave.  Is  this  just,  in  a  Government  of  Law,  sup 
ported  only  by  opinion — for  it  is  not  pretended  that 
it  is  a  Government  of  force?''  (3)  Bad  policy: 
"A  wise  legislature  will  always  consider  the  charac 
ter,  condition  and  feeling  of  those  to  be  legislated 
for.  *  *  In  all  questions  like  the  present  in  the 
United  States,  the  strong  may  yield  to  the  weak 
without  disgrace  even  in  their  own  opinion;  the 
weak  can  not,  hence  the  propriety  of  not  attempting 
to  pass  this  new  condition  on  the  people  of  Missouri. 
Let  the  United  States  abandon  this  new  scheme; 
let  their  magnanimity,  and  not  their  power,  be  felt 
by  the  people  of  Missouri.  The  attempt  to  govern 
too  much  has  produced  every  civil  war  that  ever  has 
been,  and  will,  probably,  every  one  that  ever  may 
be.  All  governments,  whatever  their  form,  want 
more  power  and  more  authority,  and  all  the  governed 
want  less  government."  He  then  points  out  the 
effects  of  this  unwise  policy,  citing  the  American 
Revolution  as  a  parallel  to  the  war  which  might 
ensue  if  Missouri  were  dealt  such  a  blow  as  was 
intended  by  the  Roberts  amendment.  Good  policy 
demanded  that  the  powerful  party  deal  justly  by 
the  apparently  weaker  party.  "Let  me  not  be  mis 
understood  as  wishing  or  intending  to  create  any 
alarm  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  people  of  Missouri. 
I  know  nothing  of  them.  But  in  examining  the 
question,  we  ought  not  to  forget  our  own  history, 
nor  the  character  of  those  who  settle  on  our  fron 
tier.  Your  easy-going,  chimney-corner  people,  the 
timid  and  fearful,  never  move  to  them.  They  stay 
where  there  is  no  danger  from  an  Indian,  or  any 
other  wild  beast.  It  is  the  bravest  of  the  brave  and 
the  boldest  of  the  bold  .who  venture  there  "  Then 
21 


322  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

follow  some  paragraphs  which  show  a  clear  under 
standing  of  the  character  of  our  backwoodsmen  and 
the  importance  of  the  border  states. 

He  then  changes  the  tone  of  his  speech  pointing 
out  the  dangers  towards  which  this  new  political 
road  leads:  "Why  depart  from  the  good  old  way? 
Why  leave  the  road  of  experience  to  take  this  new 
one,  of  which  we  have  no  experience?  The  way 
leads  to  universal  emancipation,  of  which  we  have 
no  experience.  The  Eastern  and  Middle  States 
furnish  none.  For  years  before  they  emancipated 
they  had  but  few  [slaves],  and  of  these  a  part  were 
sold  to  the  South,  before  they  emancipated.  *  *  * 
A  clause  in  the  declaration  of  independence  has 
been  read,  declaring  'that  all  men  are  created  free 
and  equal.'  Follow  that  sentiment,  and  does  it  not 
lead  to  universal  emancipation?  If  it  will  justify 
putting  an  end  to  slavery  in  Missouri,  will  it  not 
justify  it  in  the  old  states?  Suppose  the  plan  fol 
lowed,  and  all  the  slaves  turned  loose,  and  the 
Union  to  continue,  is  it  certain  that  the  present 
Constitution  would  last  long?  Because  the  rich 
would,  in  such  circumstances,  want  titles  and  heredi 
tary  distinctions ;  the  negro  food  and  raiment.  They 
would  be  as  much  or  more  degraded,  than  in  their 
present  condition.  *  *  *  Take  the  most  favorable 
[view]  which  can  be  supposed,  that  no  convulsion 
ensue  from  a  liberation  of  the  negroes,  also 
that  the  whites  and  the  blacks  do  not  marry  and 
produce  mulatto  states,  will  not  the  whites  be  com 
pelled  to  move  and  leave  their  land  and  houses,  leave 
the  country  to  the  blacks  ?  And  are  you  willing  to 
have  black  members  of  Congress?  What  is  the 
condition  of  the  blacks  in  the  free  states,  especially 
in  the  large  cities?  Do  the  whites  and  the  blacks 
intermarry  ?  If  they  do,  are  not  the  whites  degraded 


IN  THE:  u.  s.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  323 

by  it,  are  the  blacks  in  the  learned  professions  of  law 
and  physic?  If  they  are  degraded,  where  there 
are  so  few,  what  will  be  the  consequence  when  they 
are  equal  in  number  or  nearly  so  ?  It  may  be  stated, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  there  is  no  place 
for  the  blacks  in  the  United  States — no  place  where 
they  are  not  degraded.  If  there  was  such  a  place, 
the  society  for  colonizing  them  would  not  have 
been  formed,  their  benevolent  design  never  known. 
A  country  wanting  inhabitants,  and  a  society  formed 
to  colonize  a  part  of  them,  prove  there  is  no  place 
for  them."  Aside  from  Macon's  defense  of  slavery 
as  the  better  condition  of  an  inferior  race  in  the 
presence  of  a  superior,  and  from  his  constant  refer 
ences  to  the  Constitution  which  guaranteed  the 
South  all  the  rights  she  claimed,  these  form  the 
gist  of  this  second  ablest  of  all  his  addresses  in 
Congress.1 

After  a  month's  debate  and  much  disagreement 
between  the  two  Houses  the  Thomas  substitute  was 
passed  on  March  3,  1820.  Macon  opposed  the 
bill  in  all  its  phases  to  the  last.  It  was  to  him 
what  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  of  1798  had  been 
—violation  of  the  Constitution  and  a  far  more  dan 
gerous  violation  than  had  ever  before  been  sanc 
tioned.  He  said  of  its  advocates  a  few  days  after 
the  compromise  passed :  "They  will,  no  doubt,  push 
it  with  a  view  to  form  new  parties  on  the  principle 
of  slave  or  no  slave.  It  is  the  only  hope  left  them 
by  which  to  get  power;  and  power  gives  offices 
which  are  much  in  demand,  and  which  members  of 
Congress  now  ask  the  President  for,  at  least  so  I  am 
told,  and  so  I  ^believe."2  And  again  to  the  same 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  :6th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  219-232.  I  have  quoted 
Macon  somewhat  freely,  making  slight  changes  at  one  or  two  poms  for 
the  sake  of  clearness. — AUTHOR. 

*  Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  April  14,  1820. 


324:  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

correspondent,  June  20,  1820,  he  wrote:  "Much 
electioneering  for  the  presidency  ("shy-hogging/' 
he  called  it)  was  done  and  more  openly  about  the 
Missouri  compromise  than  I  ever  saw  before.  I 
have  no  doubt,  it  would  not  have  taken  place,  had 
not  the  Administration  and  the  supposed  leaders  of 
those  opposed  to  it,  declared  in  favor  of  it,  after  the 
failure  of  Stone's  motion,  which  would  have  given 
two  degrees  more  to  the  people  of  the  South.  I 
have  no  desire  for  any  place  and  I  shall  attend  the 
next  session  of  Congress,  because  the  Missouri  ques 
tion  may  return  on  the  admission  of  the  state  into 
the  Union.  If  Holmes  and  Hill  should  be  elected 
Senators  from  Maine,  they  will  strengthen  the  Sen 
ate  on  the  question,  which  is  now  believed  to  be 
strong  enough  for  admission ;  but  [their]  election 
may  weaken  the  House." 

As  was  suggested  in  Macon's  letter  to  Yancey 
the  Missouri  question  did  come  up  again.  While 
Congress  was  engaged  in  the  Missouri  debate,  and 
during  the  interval  between  the  passage  of  the  Com 
promise  and  the  assembling  of  the  Missouri  consti 
tutional  convention  new-comers  were  arriving  in  the 
disputed  territory,  some  from  the  South  determined 
to  have  a  share  in  fixing  slavery  forever  in  the 
new  state,  others  from  the  North  hoping  by  some 
means  to  contravene  both  the  will  of  the  majority  in 
Missouri  and  the  acts  of  Congress.  The  Conven 
tion  met  in  June  and  declared  that  slavery  should  be 
established  in  that  state  by  constitutional  provi 
sion,  and  that  the  State  legislature  should  not  have 
the  right  to  abolish  it,  and  secondly  that  the  legis 
lature  should  pass  a  law  forbidding  all  free  negroes 
from  settling  in  the  state.  The  victory  was  won 
so  far  as  the  new  state  was  concerned. 

But    when    Congress    reassembled    in    November 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  325 

the  Missouri  constitution  was  submitted  as  a  final 
step  in  the  process  of  admission.  The  anti-slavery 
party  knew  that  Maine  was  now  safely  in  the 
Union;  they  had  failed  in  winning  their  contest  in 
Missouri;  there  remained  the  final  joint  resolution 
before  Missouri — Maine's  balance  mate,  according 
to  the  understanding  of  both  sides  at  the  last  ses 
sion — could  become  a  state.  Maine's  representa 
tives  now  had  the  right  to  vote  on  Missouri's  admis 
sion  !  The  pro-slavery  party  in  Missouri  had  gone 
a  step  too  far  in  their  victory.  They  had  made  it 
a  part  of  their  constitution  that  free  negroes  should 
not  be  allowed  to  live  as  citizens  under  its  operation. 
This  was  plainly  a  violation  of  the  constitution  since 
citizens  of  some  states  could  thus  be  denied  ordi 
nary  civil  rights  in  that  part  of  the  country.  The 
anti-slavery  party,  with  King  of  New  York,  who 
hoped  to  make  a  party  issue  of  this  question  and 
thereby  at  last  "swing"  himself  into  the  presidency, 
prepared  to  defend  their  last  ditch.  Their  chances 
were  promising.  Clay  was  not  present  at  the  open 
ing  of  Congress.  To  win  the  vacant  Speakership 
became  at  once  the  goal  of  each  party  in  the  House. 
Lowndes,  a  "compromiser,"  was  made  the  candi 
date  of  the  South,  since  only  he  could  hope  to  win 
votes  enough  at  the  North  necessary  for  election ; 
Taylor,  of  New  York,  became  the  candidate  of  the 
anti-slavery  party.  After  three  days  balloting,  Tay 
lor  was  elected.1  This  gave  assurance  that  Mis 
souri  would  not  be  admitted.  Clay  came  into  the 
House  in  time  to  urge  adherence  to  the  great  Com 
promise  of  the  last  session  on  condition  that  the  Mis 
souri  legislature  give  a  solemn  promise  that  free 
negroes  should  not  be  excluded  from  the  state  as 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i6th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  435-438. 

2  Schouler,  III.,  176-186. 


326  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

citizens.  At  first  he  failed;  but  a  month  later  he 
succeeded  in  getting  a  joint  committee  of  twenty- 
three  members  which  finally  agreed  to  his  plan. 

Macon  took  no  part  in  the  Senate  debate  on  the 
various  resolutions  presented  for  the  third  settle 
ment  of  the  Missouri  controversy.  When  Clay's 
resolution  from  the  joint  committee  came  before  the 
Senate  he  was  absent  and  so  he  did  not  offer  his 
single  protest  against  it.  But  when  the  final  vote 
on  the  admission  according  to  the  joint  resolution 
passed,  he  voted  with  thirteen  others  in  the  nega 
tive.  Among  these  was  King,  who  thus  saw  the 
Kentuckian's  compromise  destroy  his  hopes  for 
the  presidency.  Macon  had  voted  against  the  reso 
lution  because  he  maintained  that  no  restrictions 
could  be  placed  upon  a  sovereign  state  as  to  what 
class  of  men  she  should  admit  to  citizenship.1  His 
old  friend  Randolph  was  again  in  the  House  where 
he  also  voted  against  the  Clay  arrangement  and  on 
the  same  grounds. 

Macon's  dissatisfaction  concerning  the  settle 
ment  of  this  question  was  evident.  It  comes  to  light 
in  his  correspondence  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  He  believed  with  Randolph  and  his  school  of 
Southern  extremists  that  the  whole  of  the  Louis 
iana  purchase  lands  should  have  been  left  open  to 
settlers  from  the  South,  and  they  were  so  strongly 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  this  Southern  expan 
sion  that  they  readily  excused  the  clause  of  the 
Missouri  constitution  which  prohibited  a  citizen  of 
Massachusetts  from  enjoying  what  the  National 
Constitution  guaranteed  him — equal  rights  with  the 
citizens  of  other  states.  This  extreme  position, 
however,  became  the  position  of  the  whole  South  be 
fore  1850. 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  i6th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  388. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  327 

The  effect  of  the  Compromise  was  for  the 
South  what  Macon  had  predicted  it  would  be  for 
both  sections,1  consolidation  in  defence  of  or  oppo 
sition  to  one  issue,  which  consolidation  bore  its  first 
fruits  in  1828  and  1832.  It  brought  Jefferson  more 
actively  into  politics  as  a  councilor  than  he  had  been 
in  some  years,  and  had  its  influence  in  giving  the 
country  the  Democratic  party  as  it  is  now  known. 

Macon,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  not  been  on 
very  intimate  terms  with  Jefferson  since  their  disa 
greement  in  1806,  though  they  kept  up  friendly  rela 
tions.  In  1815  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina 
(Miller)  charged  Macon  with  purchasing  a  statue 
of  Washington  to  be  erected  in  the  rotunda  of  the 
capitol.2  This  commission  gave  Macon  an  oppor 
tunity  to  approach  the  sage  of  Monticello  in  a  way 
which  could  not  but  be  flattering  to  the  latter.  Jef 
ferson  cheerfully  responded  and  freely  gave  his 
advice  about  having  a  suitable  statue  made,  which 
the  people  of  North  Carolina  gladly  followed,  and  a 
handsome  piece  of  work  by  the  celebrated  Conova 
was  purchased.3  But  no  regular  correspondence 
followed  until  1819,  when  the  signs  of  the  times 
were  pointing  to  the  Missouri  controversy.  Macon 
wrote  Jefferson  in  the  early  days  of  the  year  asking 
advice  on  the  public  questions  of  the  day.  To 
which  Jefferson  responded,  still  professing  great 
confidence  in  those  who  were  in  power,  "I  willingly 
put  both  soul  and  body  into  their  hands.  While 
such  men  as  yourself  and.  your  worthy  colleagues 
in  the  legislature  and  such  characters  as  compose 
the  Executive  administration  are  watching  for  us 
all,  I  slumber  without  fear  and  review  in  my  dreams 
the  visions  of  antiquity."  Yet  a  little  further  on  he 

1  See  letter  of  April  19,  1^20. 

2  See  letter  of  Macon  to  Jefferson,  Jan.  7, 1816,  in  Jefferson  MSS. 

3  See  Jefferson's  letter  of  January  22,  1816,  in  Washington's  Works  of 
Jefferson. 


328  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

joins  Macon  in  his  complaint  against  the  manufac 
turing  of  paper  money,  which  he  called  "filching 
from  industry  its  honest  earnings,  wherewith  to 
build  up  palaces  and  raise  gambling  stock  for  swind 
lers  and  shavers/'1  And  to  show  Jefferson's  increas 
ing  anxiety,  a  letter  to  John  Adams,  December  10, 
1819,  is  quoted:  "The  banks,  bankrupt  law,  manu 
factures,  Spanish  treaty,  are  nothing.  These  are 
occurrences,  which,  like  waves  in  a  storm,  will  pass 
under  the  ship.  But  the  Missouri  question  is  a 
breaker  on  which  we  lose  the  Missouri  country  by 
revolt,  and  what  more,  God  only  knows.  From  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill  to  the  treaty  of  Paris,  we 
never  had  so  ominous  a  question.  It  even  damps 
the  joy  with  which  I  hear  of  your  high  health,  and 
welcomes  to  me  the  consequences  of  my  want  of  it. 
I  thank  God  that  I  shall  not  live  to  witness  its  issue. 
Sed  haec  hactenus."  This  despondency  character 
ized  Jefferson's  correspondence  during  the  years 
immediately  following,2  and  it  led  to  a  revival  of  the 
former  intimacy  between  him  and  Macon,  whose 
constant  presence  in  Washington  as  a  member  of 
the  Senate  was  to  Jefferson  a  living  link  between 
him  and  the  great  days  of  1800.  Macon  wrote 
Jefferson  August  7,  1821,  chiefly,  as  it  seems,  on  the 
decisions  of  the  United  States  courts,  to  which  Jef 
ferson  replies  by  sending  Macon  a  copy  of  a  letter 
to  another  friend  which  "I  place  in  your  hands  as 
the  Depository  of  old  and  sound  principles  and  as 
a  record  of  my  protest  against  this  parricide  tribu 
nal.  There  are  two  measures  which  if  not  taken, 
we  are  undone.  1st.  To  check  these  unconstitu 
tional  invasions  of  state  rights  by  the  federal  judici 
ary.  2.  To  cease  borrowing  money,  and  to  pay  off 

1  Jefferson  to  Macon,  January  12,  1819— unpublished. 

2  See  Jefferson  to  Hugh  Nelson,  March  12,  1820,  in  Ford's  Writings  of 
Jefferson. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1815-1828.  329 

the  national  debt."  The  first  he  proposed  should 
be  done  by  constantly  recurring  protests  from  Con 
gress  against  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  the  second  was  to  be  accomplished  by  reducing 
the  army  and  by  putting  the  navy  out  of  commission 
altogether  if  necessary.  November  20,  1821,  we 
have  still  another  expression  of  his  sentiments  to 
Macon:  "Our  government  is  now  taking  so  steady 
a  course  as  to  show  by  what  road  it  will  pass  to 
destruction,  to-wit,  by  consolidation  first,  and  then 
by  corruption,  its  necessary  consequence.  The 
engine  of  consolidation  will  be  the  Federal  judiciary, 
the  two  other  branches  the  corrupted  and  corrupting 
agencies.  I  fear  an  explosion  in  our  state  legisla 
ture.''1 

At  the  same  time  a  lively  war  of  pamphlets  and 
speech-making  was  carried  on.  John  Taylor  wrote 
a  book  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
which  was  widely  circulated  in  Virginia.  But 
Macon  feared ;  "it  is  too  late  for  [it]  to  do  the  great 
majority  of  the  people  good ;  too  many  persons  have 
lived  so  long  and  so  well  on  the  public  debt  and 
bank  stock  and  by  bank  and  other  swindling,  that  it 
will  be  almost  impossible  for  the  honesty  and  indus 
try  of  the  nation  to  get  clear  of  them ;  the  newspa 
pers  are  generally  on  the  paper  and  idle  side  and 
they  are  generally  as  much  depreciated  as  the  bank 
bills.  The  principles  which  turned  the  federalists 
out  of  power  are  not  fashionable  at  Washington, 
nor  is  there  much  probability  of  their  being 
shortly."2 

Macon  believed  it  was  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
the  Northern  states  to  draw  on  Southern  resources 
in  every  way  possible,  never  allowing  anything  to 
return  thither  in  the  form  of  National  expenditures. 

1  Ford's  Writings  of  Jefferson,  X.,  193-194. 

2  Macon  to  Jefferson. 


330  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

''Nearly  all  the  federal  taxes  collected  there  (in 
the  South)  are  paid  for  the  interest  of  the  public 
debt  (owned  by  Northern  capitalists)  or  laid  out  to 
the  North  of  the  James  river,  hence  the  constant 
drain  of  money  from  these  states  to  the  U.  S.  bank. 
This  is  not  strictly  chargeable  to  the  bank,  because, 
whether  that  existed  or  not,  the  money  could  still 
be  drawn  as  it  now  is.  It  operates  like  a  balance 
of  trade  almost  equal  to  the  amount  of  the  national 
revenue  there  collected."1  And  it  was  likewise  his 
opinion  that  the  Supreme  Court  was  committed  to 
the  cause  of  consolidation  and  corruption  already 
mentioned  by  Jefferson :  "The  plan  of  the  federal 
court  seems  to  keep  pace  with  Congress.  The  deci 
sions  do  not  go  beyond  the  system  of  internal  im 
provements,  which  has  often  been  before  the 
National  legislature  and  received  the  sanction  of 
both  branches.  As  Congress  attempts  to  get  power 
by  stretching  the  Constitution  to  fit  its  views,  it  is 
to  be  expected,  if  the  other  departments  do  not 
check  them,  that  each  of  them  will  use  the  same 
means  to  obtain  power  and  thus  destroy  any  check 
that  was  intended  by  the  division  of  power  into 
three  distinct  and  separate  bodies."2 

Still  another  letter  from  Jefferson,  October  10, 
1823,  introducing  a  friend,  says :  "His  political  prin 
ciples  are  yours  and  mine,  and  proposing  a  visit  to 
Washington  he  naturally  wishes  to  be  known  to 
one  so  long  and  so  prominent  in  the  school  of  genu 
ine  republicanism.  It  gives  me  the  occasion  of  re 
calling  myself  to  your  recollection  and  of  assuring 
you  that  time  has  not  changed  nor  ever  will  change 
towards  you  my  constant  affection  and  friendly 
attaint  and  respect."3 

1  Macon  to  Bartlett  Yancey,  December  12,  1821. 

2  Macon  to  Jefferson,  February  2,  1822. 

3  From  the  Macon  Papers. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    SENATE    1820-1828. 
II. 

Following  the  plenteous  years  of  1817-1819  there 
came,  as  is  customary,  years  of  scarcity.  In  1820 
the  National  Government  borrowed  three  million 
dollars  with  which  to  pay  current  expenses;  the 
next  year  five  millions  were  necessary,  and  all  this 
in  time  of  peace.  The  country  had  been  flooded 
with  paper  money  insufficiently  secured.  A  spirit 
of  speculation,  starting  from  the  years  when  Con 
gress  was  at  its  wits  end  to  know  what  to  do  with 
the  surplus  in  the  treasury,  had  continued  until 
individuals,  corporations  and  states  all  became  bor 
rowers  for  purposes  of  extravagant  speculation. 
More  than  twenty-three  millions  were  due  the  Na 
tional  Government  for  public  lands  taken  up  on  the 
instalment  plan ;  the  debtors  were  unable  to  pay.  The 
demand  for  Western  and  new  lands  had  been  so 
great  that  land  in  the  old  states  was  next  to  worth 
less;  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  country  had 
been  squandered  to  such  an  extent  in  uncertain 
enterprises  that  the  first  shock  brought  financial 
stagnation.  Imports  fell  off  at  once;  the  Govern 
ment  receipts  were  less  than  its  expenditures,  and 
when  a  loan  was  asked  a  very  high  rate  of  interest 
was  demanded.1  A  sad  reminder  of  these  distress 
ing  times  is  Jefferson's  appeal  to  the  Virginia  legis 
lature  for  the  privilege  of  disposing  of  Monticello 
by  lottery  in  order  to  get  something  like  its  value. 
A  comparatively  small  debt  had  thus  engulfed  him. 

i  Schouler,  III.,  190-192. 


332  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

He  said  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  that  he  should  have  to 
end  his  days  in  a  cabin  on  his  small  plantation  in 
Bedford  county  unless  his  petition  were  granted. 
This  was  not  done.  Through  the  generosity  of 
friends  in  New  York  the  auctioneer's  hammer  was 
stayed  until  a  few  months  after  his  death  when  that 
magnificent  estate  was  sold  for  less  than  enough  to 
satisfy  pressing  creditors. 

These  alarming  condition?  caused  great  uneasi 
ness  and  had  no  small  influence  in  the  formation  of 
new  party  lines,  particularly  in  compacting  the 
leaders  of  the  South  in  a  defensive  organization 
directed  against  all  measures  looking  to  internal 
improvements  or  high  tariffs,  for  these  were  asso 
ciated  not  unnaturally  by  the  people  of  that  section 
with  the  present  ills  of  the  country.  These  ill?, 
bore  harder,  too,  on  the  older  Southern  states  than 
on  any  other  part  of  the  Union  owing  to  the  con 
stant  drain  on  them  in  the  building  up  of  Alabama 
and  the  Southwest,  and  more  especially  because  of 
the  unequal  operation  of  the  tariff  laws.  Retrench 
ment  and  reform  became  the  cry  of  a  compact  party 
of  Southern  congressmen  even  during  the  agitation 
of  the  Missouri  question.  Macon  and  Randolph 
consistent  with  the  traditions  of  their  party,  led 
the  movement  in  the  two  Houses :  Macon  summed 
up  the  difficulties  confronting  Monroe  at  the  end 
of  his  first  term,  charging  him  with  having  deserted 
his  party  in  seeking  to  gain  the  support  of  New 
England,1  with  having  squandered  six  millions  of 
the  public  money,  with  then  making  an  immediate 
demand  on  the  treasury  for  twelve  millions,  with 
having  decreased  the  public  revenues  and  with  hav- 

i  "  I  suspect  that  Mr.  Monroe  begins  to  feel  that  he  can  not  safely  de 
pend  on  his  new  friends  and  old  opponents  to  support  his  administra 
tion." — Letter  to  Yancey,  April  19,  1820. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828,  333 

ing  assisted  the  people  at  home  to  get  heavily  in 
debt.1 

Notwithstanding  these  unfavorable  conditions, 
Monroe  need  not  have  exerted  himself  to  secure 
his  second  election.  The  principal  aspirants  to  the 
office  geared  their  machinery  to  fit  the  year  1824 
instead  of  1820;  and  the  people  had  long  since 
agreed  to  give  the  leader  of  the  "Era  of  Good  Feel 
ing"  a  second  term.  So  nowhere  was  there  any 
organized  opposition,  and  Monroe  received  all  the 
votes  of  the  electoral  college  save  one.  The  old 
parties  had  gone  to  pieces;  the  political  chieftains 
all  belonging  nominally  in  1820  to  one  organization 
were  putting  themselves  forward  in  their  own  ways 
to  gain  the  public  support,  and  before  the  adjourn 
ing  of  Congress  in  1820  there  were  four  candidates 
well  advanced  on  the  way  towards  1824.  Macon 
names  them  in  the  following  order:  "Of  the  great 
men  at  Washington,  Crawford,  I  think,  rather 
stands  the  highest,  though  not  so  high  as  he  has 
done ;  Adams  has  a  few  warm  supporters,  a  part  of 
them  from  local  considerations  and  others  for  his 
violent  defence  of  the  attack  of  the  Spanish  forts 
in  Florida2 ;  Calhoun  stands  well  with  the  military, 
with  the  manufacturers  not  so  well  as  formerly,  and 
with  those  for  internal  improvements  very  high; 
Clay  stands  high  with  the  two  last  mentioned 
[classes]  ;  King  has,  I  think,  lost  ground  with  his 
party — Pinckney's  and  Smith's  replies  to  him  on  the 
Missouri  bill  lessened  his  reputation  as  a  statesman, 
or  rather  his  own  speech  did  it."3 

Macon  had  decided  whom  he  should  support  in 
this  long  hurdle  race  for  the  Presidency  before  the 

1  "  Add  to  that  six  million  dollars  he  found  in  the  treasury  and  nearly 
or  quite  twice  as  much  wanted  at  this  time  and  the  present  means  likely 
to  diminish  and  the  people  at  home  generally  in  debt." — Ibid. 

2  He  refers  here  to  Jackson's  unauthorized  invasion  of  Florida. 

3  Macon  to  Yancey,  June  20,  1820. 


334  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

meeting  of  Congress  in  1821.  On  the  I2th  of 
December,  he  wrote  Yancey  from  Washington: 
"Already  there  is  much  talk  here  about  who  is  to  be 
the  next  President,  and  it  is  frequently  asked  who  N. 
C.  will  support.  My  answer  has  been,  'Whoever 
was  thought  to  be  most  republican  and  most  econom 
ical.'  Unanimity  in  the  South  would  give  great 
weight  to  the  man  who  may  be  there  supported.  I 
have  said  especially  'in  the  South,'  because  nearly 
all  the  federal  taxes  collected  there  are  paid  for  the 
interest  of  the  public  debt,  or  laid  out  north  of  the 
James  River."  He  then  betrays  his  decided  prefer 
ence  for  Crawford,  and  by  March  of  1822,  he  is 
ferreting  out  every  source  of  opposition  to  his  can 
didate  in  North  Carolina:  "It  is  reported  here  that 
the  Salisbury  newspaper  is  out  decidedly  against  C., 
and  that  some  of  our  ex-members  of  Congress 
(Pearson,  Henderson)  are  the  same  way.  The  oppo 
sition  to  him  will  be  determined  and  violent;  his 
friends  ought  not  to  expect  that  he  will  be  elected 
and  they  be  idle.  You  know  all  the  men  whose  names 
have  been  mentioned  for  the  next  President,  and 
that  some  of  them  are  remarkable  for  their  talents  at 
shy-hogging  (scheming),  and  never  lose  the  oppor 
tunity  of  using  them.  The  General  Assembly  at 
which  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President 
are  named  will  be  a  very  important  one  in  North 
Carolina,  and  the  members  ought  to  be  selected  with 
a  view  to  the  Presidential  electors."1  Before  the 
end  of  the  session  he  is  again  putting  his  friends  in 
North  Carolina  on  their  guard :  "Calhoun  was  last 
summer  in  Pennsylvania,  and  will  be  this  summer  in 
the  South.  You  know  his  talent  by  general  obser 
vation  for  gaining  on  strangers.  Several  of  our 

i  Macon  to  Yancey,  March  17,  1822. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  335 

Representatives  here  are  also  for  Calhoun,  who  will 
be  in  the  Assembly  at  the  proper  time  to  recommend 
electors."  He  fears,  too,  that  the  Salisbury  paper  is 
advancing  Calhoun's  cause.  During  the  next  year 
Macon  is  constantly  on  the  watch  and  directing  how 
to  serve  Crawford,  how  to  checkmate  Adams,  Cal 
houn  and  Clay.  At  one  time  the  New  England 
influences  seem  about  to  combine  with  Republican 
Pennsylvania  to  give  Adams  the  first  place  in  the 
race;  at  another  Clay,  or  Calhoun,  seems _ to  be  com 
bining  the  influences  favorable  to  protection  and  the 
banks,  and  thus  threatening  to  defeat  Crawford. 
In  February  1823,  he  fears  that  an  investigation  of 
the  Treasury  Department,  under  Crawford, 
prompted  by  the  enemies  of  that  candidate,  may 
prejudice  his  cause.1  This  plan  of  injuring  Craw 
ford  began  by  a  motion  of  Eaton,  of  Tennessee,  to 
demand  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  a  state 
ment  of  the  methods  of  that  department  in  making 
loans.  A  branch  of  the  National  Bank  had  been 
established  a  short  while  before  at  Cumberland,  Ten 
nessee,  under  circumstances  which  pointed  to  the 
improper  use  of  public  money.  Crawford  was  sus 
pected  of  attempting  thus  to  build  up  a  party  in  that 
state  favorable  to  himself  and  opposing  Jackson,who 
begins  suddenly  to  loom  above  the  political  horizon. 
Macon  wrote  his  friend  later  that  Crawford's 
chances  had  not  been  injured  by  this  attack. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  next  session,  December 
1823,  Crawford  had  arranged  his  plans  to  have  a 
Congressional  caucus  assemble  early  in  the  next 
year,  and  to  have  himself  nominated  as  the  regular 
candidate  for  the  presidency.  Macon  had  served 
the  scheming  Georgian  faithfully,  but  this  was  too 
much  for  him.  A  caucus  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  lyth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  159-160. 


336  NATHANIEL,  MACON. 

/ 

tasteful  of  political  machines  to  him.  At  a  great 
Republican  harmony  dinner  in  Philadelphia,  Decem 
ber  27,  1823,  Crawford  was  toasted  as  the  friend  of 
Nathaniel  Macon;  but  this  friendship  was  not 
enough  to  overcome  Macon's  dislike  for  the  caucus. 
About  this  time  the  North  Carolina  Legislature  held 
a  similar  meeting  to  that  now  proposed  in  Washing 
ton,  and  nominated  Crawford.  It  was  not  unani 
mous,  for  the  next  day  a  large  minority  caucus  was 
held  in  Raleigh,  in  which  Calhoun  was  nominated.1 
The  friends  of  the  latter  candidate  in  that  State  tried 
to  get  a  law  passed  which  would  give  the  selection 
of  electors  to  the  districts  again.  This  failed,  but 
only  served  to  increase  Calhoun's  popularity.  Sev 
eral  other  State  legislatures  held  partisan  caucuses 
favorable  to  Crawford,  and  then  came  the  Congres 
sional  caucus  in  Washington.  It  was  set  for  Feb 
ruary  14,  1824.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  get 
Macon  to  attend.  Yancey  wrote  urging  him  to  lay 
aside  his  prejudice  and  give  their  favorite  candidate 
this  last  token  of  his  friendship.  Gallatin  was  ap 
pealed  to  to  use  his  influence  with  Macon.  Gallatin 
yielded,  and  wrote  Macon  a  long  letter,  but  to  no 
avail.  Indeed,  he  seems  to  have  cooled  in  his  ardor 
for  Crawford,  for  he  replied  to  Yancey's  letter: 
"if  I  attend  [the  caucus],  might  it  not,  nay  would  it 
not,  be  said  that,  after  having  refused  more  than 
20  years,  and  that  too  in  the  troublesome  time  of 
war  and  the  Hartford  Convention,  that  now  in  time 
of  peace  the  principle  or  practice  is  changed,  that 
the  master  intriguer  is  the  first  and  only  one  who 
has  been  able  to  find  and  touch  the  chord  which  pro 
duced  the  change?  A  change  at  this  time  would 
give  rise  to  suspicions  that  a  promise  or  bargain 
had  been  made.  If  I  have  the  national  influence 

1  Richmond  Enquirer,  December  30,  1823. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  337 

which  you  suppose,  by  what  means  has  it  been 
obtained?  Not,  I  am  sure,  by  pursuing  the  opin 
ions  of  others."1  He  refused  to  attend,  and  a  great 
many  other  Crawford  supporters  remained  at  home 
that  evening.  The  Richmond  Enquirer  considered 
this  act  of  Macon's  worthy  of  especial  attention  in 
its  review  of  the  meeting  a  few  days  later :  "The 
venerable  Nathaniel  Macon,  known  to  be  for  Craw 
ford,  would  not  attend."  The  caucus  was  a  lame 
affair;  it  was  the  last  of  this  sort  of  Congressional 
usurpation.  Macon  had  been,  as  he  said,  hood 
winked  into  one,  but  he  was  never  caught  a  second 
time.  His  opinion  as  to  how  to  get  candidates  regu 
larly  before  the  voters  of  one's  party  was  that  the 
people  themselves  should  be  consulted  by  some 
means.  How  this  should  be  done,  he  did  not  sug 
gest.  The  nominating  conventions  and  primaries  of 
the  present  had  not  been  invented. 

At  this  session  of  Congress,  1823-1824,  Jackson's 
chances  grew  more  and  more  promising.  Adams 
made  efforts  to  enter  into  an  alliance  with  the  hero 
of  New  Orleans,  offering  him  the  Vice-Presidency. 
Jackson  was  not  the  man  to  take  second  place,  so 
the  brave  and  plucky  New  Englander  was  left  to 
plod  his  difficult  path  alone.  Calhoun,  forecasting 
well  the  future,  and  being  himself  a  young  man, 
finally  joined  hands  with  the  Tennesseean,  accepting 
second  place,  with  an  understanding  as  to  the 
future.  This  added  to  Jackson's  influence  the  sup 
port  of  the  young  Republicans,  who,  Macon  said, 
began  a  second  time  "to  be  the  fashion"  in  Wash 
ington.  Macon  opposed  this  alliance  as  lustily  as 
he  had  favored  Crawford :  "It  is  believed  here,  and 
some  say  known,  that  Calhoun  has  withdrawn  from 
the  contest,  and  that  his  friends  will  support  Gen- 

i  Macon  to  Yancey.  December  23,  182;. 

22 


338  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

eral  Jackson.  I  have  heard  that  the  greatest  exer 
tions  are  to  be  made  for  the  General  in  North  Caro 
lina  ;  that  a  meeting  was  to  take  place  last  Saturday 
in  Warrenton  to  nominate  him.  When  I  left  home, 
a  great  majority  in  the  county  appeared  to  be  for 
Crawford,  and  I  imagine  are  so  yet.  A  meeting 
for  the  same  purpose  was  to  take  place  in  Hills- 
boro."1  A  few  weeks  later  he  warns  his  friends 
against  losing  interest,  "the  Republicans  should 
always  be  at  their  posts,  power  once  lost  is  not  easily 
regained" ;  and  on  May  6,  he  says  North  Carolina 
would  be  canvassed  that  summer  by  William  R. 
King,  of  Alabama,  and  John  H.  Eaton,  of  Tennes 
see,  in  favor  of  the  Jackson-Calhoun  ticket,  which 
was  much  to  Macon's  disliking. 

Fate  was  not  favorable  to  the  "old  Republicans/' 
who,  though  they  had  regained  much  of  their  for- 
I  mer  influence  and  were  excellently  organized,  were 
destined  to  lose  in  their  first  fight  after  the  Missouri 
battle.  Crawford's  health  failed  in  the  summer  of 
1823  ;  he  retired,  stricken  with  paralysis,  to  a  coun 
try  residence  near  Washington,  where  his  bosom 
friends  alone  were  allowed  to  see  him.2  Macon 
was  one  of  these,  and  he  constantly  gave  the  public 
the  most  hopeful  accounts  of  his  friend's  health,  on 
which  depended  the  hopes  of  his  party.3  It  was 
a  great  disappointment  to  Macon  that  Crawford  was 
thus  disabled,  for  it  lost  him  the  Presidency.  In 
North  Carolina,  where  such  a  strong  bias  for  Cal- 
houn  as  candidate  for  the  first  place  had  been  shown, 
the  people  now  turned  readily  to  the  support  of  the 
lackson  ticket,  on  which  the  great  South  Carolin 
ian's  name  appeared  second.  The  party  machine  with 

1  Macon  to  Yancey,  February  24,  1824. 

2  Schouler,  III.,  305-306. 

3  Macon  to  Yancey,  March  31,  1824. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE:,  1820-1828.  339 

which  Macon  was  somewhat  in  accord,  as  has  been 
seen,  was  set  all  out  of  gear  when  the  news  spread 
abroad  that  Crawford  was  paralyzed.  No  resistance 
could  longer  be  made  against  the  two  most  popular 
men  in  the  South,  the  one  for  his  daring  military  ca 
reer,  the  other  on  account  of  his  ability  and  wonder 
ful  personal  magnetism.  What  determined  Macon 
in  his  opposition  to  Jackson  was  the  assumption  of 
sovereign  authority  on  the  part  of  the  latter  in  Flor 
ida  a  few  years  before ;  and  what  he  opposed  in  Cal- 
houn  was  his  whole  creed;  Calhoun  had  voted  in 
1816  for  the  second  National  Bank,  he  had  advocated 
the  passage  of  the  Internal  Improvements  bill,  which 
Madison  had  vetoed,  and  he  was  in  accord  with  the 
demands  of  the  Northern  manufacturers  for  a  high 
tariff.  These  things  were  enough,  in  Macon's  eyes, 
to  condemn  forever  any  man  aspiring  to  a  position 
of  public  trust  in  the  National  government.  But 
just  these  features  of  Calhoun's  policy  attracted 
strong  support  in  the  North  Carolina  of  1824,  where 
there  were  many  advocates  of  the  so-called  American 
system,  and  where  the  nucleus  of  the  Whig  party 
was  already  formed.  When  the  election  took  place, 
North  Carolina  cast  her  full  vote  for  Jackson  and 
Calhoun.1  No  account  of  Macon's  disappointment 
at  the  results  of  this  election  has  been  preserved. 
But  it  is  evident  that  he  was  not  in  harmony  with 
the  majority  in  his  State  at  that  time. 

The  contest  was  not  decided,  however,  until  after 
a  long  wrangle  in  Congress  during  the  winter  of 
1824-1825,  when  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  ver 
dict  was  set  aside  by  Clay,  and  the  second  highest 
on  the  list  of  candidates  was  elevated  to  the  first 
place  in  the  land.  Macon  failed  also  to  leave  on 
record  his  opinions  on  the  subject  of  Adams'  election 

*  cf,  Benton's  Abridgment  of  Debates,  VIII.,  324. 


340  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

over  Jackson  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  But 
a  letter  to  Yancey,  written  soon  after  he  reached 
Washington,  and  more  than  a  month  before  the 
Presidential  contest  began,  shows  clearly  enough 
his  dissatisfaction  with  conditions  there :  "Very  soon 
after  getting  here,  one  of  the  Representatives  from 
N.  C.  asked  me  what  I  thought  the  friends  of  Craw 
ford  ought  to  do.  This  question  was  put  in  the 
presence  of  two  or  three  others  of  our  brethren. 
The  answer  was,  do  nor  say  nothing;  by  a  union 
you  have  been  defeated,  let  the  victors  decide  who 
shall  be  President,  because  you  may  at  any  time 
take  your  choice,  if  you  think  proper,  of  those  you 
do  not  approve."1 

The  prevailing  sentiment  in  North  Carolina  was 
not  in  accord  with  Macon's  views ;  in  the  nation  at 
large  there  was  little  promise  of  any  return  to  what 
he  called  true  Republican  doctrines ;  and  all  the  pos 
sible  candidates  for  the  Presidency  were  equally 
distasteful  to  him;  he  was  now  sixty-six  years  old, 
and  accounted  seventy.  How  could  the  closing  years 
of  his  political  life  be  promising?  He  gave  them 
to  earnest,  determined  opposition,  not  unlike  he  had 
done  soon  after  the  beginning  of  his  public  career 
when  the  elder  Adams  was  in  the  President's  chair. 

About  the  time  Crawford's  illness  upset  all  his 
plans  for  the  campaign  of  1824,  the  policy  of  pro 
tective  tariff  was  again  revived,  with  Clay  as  its 
champion.  Clay  knew  well  the  state  of  American 
politics  at  that  time.  His  purpose  seems  to  have 
been  to  come  out  from  his  two  years'  retirement, 
become  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  thus  bring  to 
the  front  his  former  scheme  for  "protecting  infant 
industries,"  and  by  this  means,  while  Adams,  Craw- 
fprd  and  Jackson  were  wrangling  over  the  first 

1  Macon  to  Yancey,  December  26,  1824. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  341 

place  in  the  dying  Republican  party,  combine  the 
North  and  West  on  a  new  issue  and  bring  himself 
with  one  stroke  into  the  Presidency.  The  great 
dividing  line  between  North  and  South  which  he 
had  done  much  to  fix  was  to  be  broken  over  in  the 
organization  of  his  followers  by  obscuring  the  slave 
question.  High  tariff  was  to  be  the  main  issue; 
next  to  it  lavish  public  expenditure  in  the  form  of 
internal  improvements.  The  tariff  was  not  a  new 
thing  in  the  country,  but  a  purely  protective  duty 
for  the  building  up  of  the  manufacturing  interests 
was  somewhat  novel.  On  the  subject  of  internal 
improvements,  Clay  had  failed  twice,  yet  nothing 
loth  he  now  made  it  a  part  of  his  American  system. 
The  objects  of  the  ''system"  were  to  foster  all  kinds 
of  manufactures  at  the  expense  of  the  vast  majority 
of  the  people,  under  the  pretense  of  making  the 
nation  independent  of  foreign  countries.  •  Every  one 
who  opposed  Clay  would  thus  be  made  to  favor 
foreigners.  The  tariff  bill  introduced  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  new  policy  raised  the  average  rate 
from  twenty-five  per  cent  in  1816,  to  thirty- three 
and  one-third  in  I824.1  More  than  two  months 
were  spent  in  the  debate  that  followed,  in  which  it 
was  seen  that  the  South  had  changed  grounds  since 
1816;  when  its  Representatives  largely  favored  a 
protective  tariff.  When  the  vote  was  taken,  New 
England,  the  Middle  States  and  the  West  favored 
the  new  issue ;  the  South,  from  Virginia  to  Louisi 
ana,  except  one  man,  voted  solidly  against  it.  When 
the  bill  reached  the  Senate  it  there  underwent  an 
other  two  months  of  debate.  Its  friends  could 
count  only  on  a  bare  majority,  even  if  that  much. 
Southern  Senators  were  unanimous  this  time  in 
opposition  to  that  kind  of  National  improvement. 

i  Channing :  History  of  the  United  States,  386. 


342  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Macon  spoke  against  the  bill  on  May  4,  expressing 
surprise  that  the  West  should  attempt  to  tax  the 
South  for  the  benefit  ol  Western  hemp  and  wool 
growers  and   Northern  manufacturers.     He  called 
particular  attention  to  the  poverty  of  the  Southern 
States,  the  States  which  would  have  to  bear  the  bur 
den  of  the  tax  without  the  prospect  of  receiving  any 
of    its   benefits.1     Two   votes   of   New   Englanders 
would  decide  the  tariff,  said  Macon  in  a  letter  to 
Yancey  in  May,  1824.     But  these  two  votes  were 
likely  to  be  won  by  concessions  of  one  kind  or  an 
other  from  the  friends  of  protection.     Again  Macon 
proposed  several  amendments  or  exemptions,  but, 
the  South  being  now  isolated,  these  were  all,  save 
one,  rejected  without  debate.2  Then  Senator  Branch, 
of  North  Carolina,  with  Macon's  concurrence,  offered 
to  add  a  new  clause  to  the  bill,  providing  for  an 
appropriation  of  $500,000  to  build  canals  in  Eastern 
North  Carolina,  and  for  removing  the  obstructions 
to  an  outlet  to  the  sea  from  that  State.     This  was 
taking  the  protectionists  on  their  own  grounds,  for 
they  were  all  in   favor  of  internal  improvements; 
but  the  proposition  was  promptly  voted  down.     On 
the  very  last  day  of  the  debate,  Macon  spoke  against 
the   tariff,    and,    significantly   enough,    Benton,    his 
friend   from   Missouri,   replied   to   him.     The   pro 
tective  policy  passed  with  a  majority  of  five  votes 
on  May  19,  1824.     Just  four  years  before  Missouri 
and  the  South,  including  Kentucky  and  Illinois,  had 
voted   solidly  together  on  the   Great   Compromise. 
It  was  then  Thomas  of  Illinois  who  came  forward 
with  the  compromise  which  Southern  congressmen 
thought  gave   them   the   best   terms   to   which   the 
North    would    submit.     Now    Missouri,    Kentucky 

1  Annals  of  Congress,  i8th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  690. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  i8th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  733. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  343 

and  Illinois  joined  hands  with  Pennsylvania,  New 
York  and  the  Eastern  States  to  pass  a  law  which 
every  one  knew  would  constantly  draw  large  taxes 
from  the  South  without  chance  of  their  returning 
thence  in  any  form,  unless  that  section  should  change 
its  whole  economic  structure  and  become  a  seat  of 
manufacturing.  This  was  next  to  impossible  under 
the  system  of  slave  labor. 

When  Clay's  first  campaign  for  public  improve 
ments  failed  because  of  Madison's  veto  in  the  clos 
ing  days  of  his  administration,  and  when  in  the  fol 
lowing  December  (1817)  Monroe  announced  that  he 
would  veto  any  similar  bill  which  Congress  might 
pass,  De  Witt  Clinton  and  the  people  of  New  York 
hastened  forward  their  great  Erie  Canal  to  its  com 
pletion,  and  gained  their  object — the  trade  with 
the  West.  At  the  beginning  of  Adams'  adminis 
tration  in  1825,  public  attention  had  become  so  much 
occupied  with  the  idea  of  internal  improvements 
that  Congress,  having  reason  to  believe  the  new 
President  would  give  the  assent  of  the  Executive, 
especially  since  Clay  had  become  Secretary  of  State, 
took  up  the  twice-defeated  bill  for  internal  improve 
ments.  "The  return  of  prosperity,"  as  the  followers 
of  Clay  called  it,  had  filled  the  treasury  again ;  the 
new  tariff  and  the  gradual  return  of  normal  condi 
tions  in  a  growing  country  were  really  responsible 
for  the  new  prosperity.  At  any  rate  there  were 
three  millions  lying  idle  in  the  treasury.  The 
same  conditions  had  returned  which  had  helped  for 
ward  Clay's  bonus  bill  more  than  eight  years  before, 
with  the  advantage  that  the  Executive  was  now 
favorable  to  latitudinarian  interpretation  of  the  Con 
stitution.  When  this  bill  was  about  to  come  up, 
Macon  wrote  his  friend :  "I  never  think  of  these 
claims  of  power,  which  appear  to  me  not  to  be 


34-i  NATHANIEL    A1ACON. 

granted,  but  I  shudder  for  the  States  where  slavery 
exists.     The  spirit  for  emancipation  is  stronger  and 
more  enthusiastic  than  that   for  internal  improve 
ments.     It  may  sleep,  but  it  never  dies.     It  has  been 
adopted^  by  religious  societies  with  a  zeal  not  likely 
to  tire.''     He  then  expresses  uneasiness  as  to  the 
effects  in  the  South  of  the  emancipation  of  slaves  in 
St.  Domingo,  and  adds :    "Many  of  the  State  legis 
latures    have    passed    resolutions    against    slavery 
which    are^  published    and    republished    again    and 
again.     It  is  made  piracy  by  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  to  bring  a  slave  from  Africa.     What,  then, 
is  it  to  hold  one  on  land,  being  a  descendant  of  an 
African?     The  question  with  us  is  not  an  original 
question  of  slavery  or  no  slavery ;  but  what  is  the 
power  of  the  Federal  government?"     This  shows 
the  foundation  of  his  dogged  opposition  to  every 
measure  of  Congress  during  the  four  years  just  be"- 
ginning.     And  the  temper  of  Congress  was  the  cause 
of    his    constant    mental    depression    during    those 
years.     Nothing  shows  this  more  clearly  than  his 
speech  of  February  24,   1825,  on  the  bill  for  sub 
scribing  $150,000   in   stock   to   the   Delaware   and 
Chesapeake  Canal :   "I  rise  with  a  full  heart  to  take 
a  last  farewell  of  an  old  friend  which  I  have  always 
admired  and  loved — the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.     Gentlemen   say   it   is   now  unnecessary  to 
enter  into  the  constitutional  question  on  this  meas 
ure."     He  then   cited  the  celebrated  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions    of    1798    as    giving  the  true 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution.     "I  can  give  no 
other  name  to  my  feelings  than  fears.     It  is  true  I 
have  no  fears  for  my  personal  liberty,  but  I  fear  my 
descendants  will  be  taxed  up  to  the  nose  so  that  if 
they  get  breath  it  will  be  as  much  as  they  can  do. 
My  fears  may  be  groundless— they  may  be  nothing 


IN 


THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  345 


but  suggestions  of  a  worn-out  old  man,  but  they  are 
sincere  and  I  am  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  this  gov 
ernment."  The  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  twenty-four 
to  eighteen.1 

His  last  struggle  against  the  American  system 
was  made  just  before  he  retired  from  the  Senate  in 
the  spring  of  1828.  Clay  was  still  in  the  Cabinet; 
the  House,  as  usual  on  anything  which  concerned 
Clay,  was  opposed  to  the  Senate  and  favorable  to  the 
Administration-;  another  presidential  campaign  was 
opening,  and  the  Jackson-Crawford  influences,  now 
united,  were  promising  to  sweep  the  country.  A 
plan  for  raising  the  tariff  rates  had  been  proposed 
towards  the  close  of  the  last  Congress  ;  it  had  passed 
the  House,  but  was  promptly  vetoed  by  the  Senate. 
During  the  following  summer,  the  Pennsylvania 
society  had  called  a  convention  of  manufacturers  to 
assemble  in  Harrisburg.  This  convention,  not  with 
out  influence  in  suggesting  similar  political  assem 
blies  for  the  nation,  attended  by  members  of  that 
class  of  people  from  Maine  to  Virginia  and  from 
New  York  to  Illinois,  petitioned  Congress  in  favor  of 
raising  the  rate  of  protection  from  33  1-3  per  cent  to 
a  higher  average.  Whether  Clay  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  introduction  and  passage  of  a  bill  giving 
40  to  75  per  cent  is  not  certain ;  but  it  suggests  that 
his  hand  must  have  been  seen  when  the  House,  still 
friendly  to  him,  although  organized  to  oppose 
Adams,  readily  passed  the  required  bill.  In  the 
Senate  changes  of  a  radical  nature  had  taken  place ; 
Calhoun,  the  Vice-President,  had  now  become  an 
opponent  of  protection,  and  the  Southern  members 
had  been  steadily  coming  together  into  a  close 
organization  since  1820.  Macon,  more  influential 
and  more  popular  now  than  ever  because  he  had 

i  Beaton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  i8o-'8i. 


346  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

/'formerly  stood  almost  alone  in  his  advocacy  of 
'  Southern  and  State  rights,  spoke  twice,  at  first  not 
so  long,  the  second  time  more  than  two  hours.  His 
speeches  may  be  summed  up  in  the  following  sent 
ences  :  "I  have  always  considered  this  system  of 
high  duties  as  the  strife  of  private  interests  against 
the  public  good.  It  was  said  to  the  South  a  few 
years  ago:  'Only  pass  our  tariff  bill  and  your  cot 
ton  will  rise,'  but  it  has  not  risen.  The  full  inten 
tion  of  this  system  seems  to  be,  that  we  are  to  have 
nothing  but  what  is  made  in  this  country.  Sir,  if 
the  Southern  States  had  looked  as  sharp  after  their 
own  affairs  as  the  North  have,  where  would  the 
great  export  trade  have  come  from?  In  nothing 
ought  equality  to  be  more  strictly  observed  than  in 
taxation.  It  is  an  old-fashioned  opinion  that  the 
maxim,  which  directs  that  everybody  should  be  let 
alone  and  allowed  to  do  that  which  he  can  do  best, 
contains  a  sound  doctrine."  The  tariff  passed  both 
Houses  and  became  a  law  just  before  the  close  of  the 
session,  the  South  voting  "solidly"  against  it.  It 
received  the  name  of  "the  tariff  of  abominations," 
and  instead  of  helping  Clay  it  injured  him.1 

The  passage  of  this  bill  brings  Macon  and  the 
other  Southern  congressmen  into  still  closer  affilia 
tion.  In  Virginia  Giles  uniting  with  the  mighty 
Ritchie,  and  favored  by  the  dying  counsels  of  Jeffer 
son,  had  built  up  a  boisterous  and  belligerant  Democ 
racy  ready  to  die  in  the  last  ditch  ;  in  South  Carolina 
Hamilton  and  the  old  regime  were  thinkng  of  seces 
sion  ;  in  Georgia  the  warlike  Troup  who  had 
defied  the  National  Government  in  the  recent  Creek 
Indian  controversy,  was  the  leader  of  the  new  party. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  1861 !  North  Carolina,  like 
ancient  England,  returning  to  her  more  conser- 

1  Schouler,  III.,  420-427. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  347 

vative  and  aristocratic  moorings,  occupied  a  unique 
position.  The  Whigs,  legitimate  offspring  of  the 
strong  anti- Jefferson  party  in  1800,  were  constantly 
growing,  though  at  the  time  under  cover  of  a  strong 
wave  of  Old  Hickory  enthusiasm,  which  will  be 
noted  presently.  The  part  Macon  played  in  this' 
change  of  things  in  the  South  outside  of  his  own: 
state  was  significant.  It  began  with  his  foresight  in 
1820,  increased  with  his  constant  reiteration  of  the 
fact  that  all  constructive  interpretation  of  the  Con 
stitution  pointed  to  the  downfall  of  slavery,  and 
reached  its  culmination  in  his  and  Randolph's  de 
termined  and  dogged  opposition  and  obstruction  to 
Adams'  administration.  He  was  almost  without 
hope  while  Clay's  star  continued  in  the  ascendency, 
and  was  almost  equally  distrustful  of  Jackson. 

Thus  far  Macon's  course  in  the  Senate  has  been 
viewed  chiefly  from  the  standpoint  of  obstruction 
and  opposition  with  only  here  and  there  a  bit  of  con 
structive  policy  cropping  out.  Let  us  now  trace  his 
advance  in  personal  popularity,  in  constructive  states 
manship  and  in  public  confidence  during  the  la§t 
eight  years  of  his  career  in  the  Senate.  His  long 
political  life  was  devoted  chiefly  to  opposition  ex 
cepting  the  first  six  years  of  Jefferson's  administra 
tion  and  the  first  five  years  of  Madison's  when  he 
was  an  exponent  and  champion  of  independent  meas 
ures.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  war  of  1812  closed, 
the  policy  of  the  young  republicans,  no  longer  ham 
pered  by  a  most  embarrassing  war,  was  made  to  em 
brace  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Federalists ; 
and  combining  these  with  the  more  popular  demo 
cratic  practices  of  the  Jefferson  republicans  and,  add 
ing  to  this  their  great  talents  and  exceedingly  popu 
lar  manners,  these  younger  men,  especially  the 
Southerners,  seized  more  firmly  than  ever  the  reins 


348  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

of  power.  But  Macon,  keeping  his  vision  clear  as 
to  the  true  position  of  his  State  and  section  and  true 
in  every  fiber  to  the  "old  Republican"  doctrines,  could 
not  support  the  revived  policy  of  the  Federalists  no 
matter  in  how  feasible  a  form.  He  was  again 
forced  into  the  opposition,  where  he  remained  until 
his  final  retirement.  During  this  time  he  was 
a  member  of  the  Senate,  which  body  had  become  the 
centre  of  great  debates,  the  organ,  too,  of  the  oppo 
sition  since  it  was  seldom  in  accord  with  the  Execu 
tive.  With  Madison  it  will  be  remembered,  the 
Senate  disagreed  on  the  subject  of  internal  improve 
ments  and  even  talked  of  passing  their  bonus  bill  for 
that  purpose  over  the  President's  veto ;  under  Mon 
roe's  administration  there  were  even  more  causes  of 
dispute,  and  with  Adams  the  Senate  was  in  a  state  of 
open  war  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  term.  The 
Senate,  then,  was  called  upon  to  do  more  than 
merely  oppose;  it  was  expected  to  make  proposals 
and  outline  policies  of  its  own  particularly  on  the 
subjects  of  internal  improvements  and  the  South 
American  relations.  What  made  this  the  more  nec 
essary  was  the  attitude  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  which,  under  the  spell  of  Clay's  influence  and 
popularity,  was  one  of  opposition  to  the  Senate  and 
for  a  great  portion  of  the  time  of  opposition  also  to 
the  President.  The  Senate  had  grown  in  the  re 
spect  and  esteem  of  the  nation.  All  which  tended  to 
give  that  body  a  more  important  share  in  the 
National  Government. 

To  this  body  Macon  had  been  sent  in  1815  to  fill 
the  unexpired  term  of  David  Stone,  resigned.  It  was 
not  until  1817  that  Macon  was  appointed  to  mem 
bership  on  important  committees.  In  December  of 
that  year,  he  became  second  member  of  the  great 
committee  on  Foreign  Relations  and  last  on  the 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  349 

committee  on  Finance.  His  principal  colleagues 
on  these  committees  were  James  Barbour  of  Vir 
ginia,  George  M.  Troup  of  Georgia,  Rufus  King  of 
New  York,  George  W.  Campbell  of  Tennessee  and 
John  W.  Eppes  of  Virginia,  all  of  whom  occupied 
the  very  highest  rank  in  the  nation,  Barbour,  Camp 
bell  and  Eppes  having  distinguished  themselves  un 
der  previous  administrations,  King  having  served 
eight  years  as  American  minister  to  Great  Britain. 
Macon  had  held  so  many  conspicuous  positions  and 
had  been  so  long  in  public  station  that  he  was 
scarcely  less  favorably  known  to  the  country  than 
his  colleagues.1 

The  committee  on  Foreign  Relations  reported, 
through  its  chairman,  Barbour,  early  in  April  of  the 
next  year  (1818)  a  navigation  bill  which  included 
the  main  features  of  the  famous  Macon  bill  No.  I 
of  the  year  1810,  that  is,  it  provided  (i)  that  the 
harbors  of  the  United  States  should  be  closed 
against  every  British  vessel  coming  from  ports  not 
open  to  American  trade,  (2)  that  every  English  ves 
sel  leaving  American  ports  and  bound  for  harbors 
closed  against  the  United  States  should  be  com 
pelled  to  give  bond  that  their  cargoes  should  be 
landed  at  the  designated  port  under  penalty  of  con 
fiscation  of  both  vessel  and  cargo  in  case  any  evasion 
were  discovered.  It  is  not  claimed  that  Macon  was 
the  author  of  this  bill,  but  that  as  its  co-author  and 
earnest  advocate  he  deserves  to  receive  credit  for 
its  preparation  and  final  passage  by  the  Senate,  espe 
cially  since  the  bill  embodies  some  of  the  principal 
features  of  his  great  bill  of  eight  years  before.2  At 
the  second  session  Macon  became  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  Foreign  Relations  and  as  such  made 

1  Annals  of  Congress   isth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  25-26. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  I.,  312-339. 


350  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

an  able  report  on  the  condition  of  American-British 
jtrade  relations  in  which  he  insisted  on  reciprocity 
between  the  two  countries  more  especially  in  the 
commerce  between  the  United  States  and  the  Eng 
lish  colonies — a  policy  which  was  first  realized  under 
the  McLane  treaty  of  Jackson's  first  administration. 
And  as  regarded  the  shipping  of  the  two  nations,  he 
said:  "It  must  be  placed  on  a  footing  of  practical 
;and  reciprocal  equality,  both  as  respects  duties  and 
charges,  and  the  equal  participation  of  the  trade." 
The  recent  navigation  law  (the  measure  just  de 
scribed)  he  reported  later  as  having  been  "productive 
of  increase  of  the  American  shipping  engaged  in  the 
direct  trade  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  and  the  corresponding  decrease  of  that  of 
Great  Britain — but  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  been 
afforded  satisfactorily  to  ascertain  this  point  or  to 
determine  other  questions  that  are  in  a  course  of 
solution.  Perhaps  it  would  be  prudent  to  allow  time 
for  this  important  experiment,  and  to  suffer  the 
negotiation  on  this  subject  to  remain  where  it  is  for 
the  present.  It  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  with 
out  cutting  off  the  trade  with  New  Brunswick,  Nova 
Scotia  and  Bermuda,  this  experiment  can  not  be 
fairly  made.  Whether  it  would  be  expedient  at  the 
present  session  to  adopt  this  measure  is  perhaps 
doubtful."1  Congress  accordingly  took  no  action 
leaving  the  subject  of  foreign  commerce  in  the 
hands  of  the  committee  and  our  representative  in 
London.  Macon's  cautious  disposition  is  evident 
in  the  report;  its  language,  too,  is  his. 

Macon  was  a  prominent  member  of  this  commit 
tee  until  he  was  elected  President  pro  temp  ore  of  the 
Senate  to  succeed  Gailliard  in  1826.  He  was  chair 
man  again  in  1825-26  when  the  controversy  over  the 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  isth  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  I.,  249-50. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  351 

celebrated  Panama  mission  took  place.  Since  this 
subject  was  made  the  basis  of  a  fierce  attack  on  the 
President,  John  Quincey  Adams,  and  Macon  being 
a  principal  party  to  the  attack,  it  becomes  necessary 
to  examine  it  more  closely. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Adams  and  Clay  had 
been  in  accord  during  Monroe's  administration  in 
regard  to  the  policy  of  the  United  States  towards 
South  America.  Clay  had  warmly  advocated  the 
recognition  of  the  new  South  American  republics 
even  before  the  more  prudent  Adams  could  clear  the 
way  of  pacifying  Spain.  Adams  had  written  the 
Monroe  doctrine  as  a  reply  to  the  manifesto  of  the 
Holy  Alliance  and,  as  the  advocate  of  such  a  doc 
trine,  he  could  not  but  favor  entering  into  any  plan 
for  establishing  closer  and  more  friendly  relations 
with  South  American  states.  The  Panama  Con 
gress,  planned  by  the  American  states  of  Spanish  ori 
gin,  was  intended  to  encourage  and  foster  closer 
friendship  among  all  the  American  powers.  It  was 
to  meet  on  the  isthmus  in  October,  1825.  Invita 
tions  were  sent  to  the  United  States.  And  Clay, 
smarting  under  the  sting  of  public  criticism  for  hav 
ing  placed  the  unpopular  Adams  in  the  President's 
chair,  hastened  to  turn  public  opinion  into  another 
channel.  He  desired  to  make  a  great  pan-American 
demonstration  of  the  Panama  Congress  and  create 
more  interest  in  inter- American  commerce.  He  took 
up  the  invitation  with  his  usual  enthusiasm  and 
gusto  and  urged  Adams  to  accept  it  and  promise  to 
send  representatives  to  Panama  without  so  much  as 
consulting  Congress.  This  was  determined  upon 
in  May,  1825  ;  and  the  Administration  set  to  work 
creating  a  public  sentiment  favorable  to  the  proposed 
mission.  When  Congress  met  Adams  simply  an 
nounced  to  the  Senate  that  he  would  send  proper 


^02  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

representatives  still  leaving  out  of  consideration  the 
fact  that  the  Senate  might  interpose  by  refusing  to 
confirm  his  nominations.  The  President  felt,  like 
his  father  before  him  after  the  X.  Y.  Z.  explosion  in 
1798,  that  in  view  of  the  hearty  public  support  which 
had  been  worked  up  and  was  now  manifesting  itself 
in  meetings  and  resolutions,  the  Senate  would  not 
make  vigorous  opposition. 

But  opposition  was  made.  The  debate  began 
with  closed  doors  and  the  people,  always  jealous  of 
secret  legislation,  began  to  murmur,  taking  pains 
to  applaud  the  President.  Van  Buren  proposed  to 
remove  this  obstacle  to  public  favor  on  the  part  of 
the  Senate  by  opening  the  doors  to  the  public. 
Adams  looked  with  disfavor  on  this  manoeuver  and 
insinuated  in  a  short  message  that  the  Senate  desired 
thus  to  curry  favor  with  the  public.  The  secret  ses 
sions  continued  and  the  President  outlined  more 
fully  in  a  special  message  his  policy  in  the  Panama 
business.  This  message  was  referred  to  the  commit 
tee  on  Foreign  Relations,  and  Macon,  now  its  chair 
man,  made  an  elaborate  and  detailed  report :  I.  Such 
a  mission  was  in  direct  violation  of  our  policy  of 
avoiding  entangling  alliances.  2.  That  we  had 
long  maintained  a  strict  neutrality  in  all  these  Span 
ish  American  revolutions.  3.  There  was  no  cause 
for  our  breaking  that  neutrality  by  taking  part  in 
this  American  international  Congress.  4.  The 
President  proposed  to  endow  our  agents  there  with 
undefined  powers.  5.  That  those  who  had  invited  us 
to  take  part  had  disclosed  their  real  purpose  to  be  to 
draw  the  United  States  into  an  alliance  with  them 
against  "their  mother  country."  And  6,  in  fact 
European  affairs  no  longer  threatened  to  become 
dangerous  to  American  liberty,  so  that  there  was  no 
cause  for  the  movement  on  foot,  and  that  if  in  the 
future  it  should  become  necessary  for  such  a  co- 


IN  THE;  u.  s.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  353 

operation  of  all  the  American  states  the  Senate 
would  suggest  that  the  United  States  take  the  ini 
tiative  and  send  out  invitations  consistent  with  their 
own  purposes.1  This  cold  analysis  of  the  Admin 
istration's  policy  did  not  please  the  public  any  more 
than  it  flattered  the  President.  The  House  sided 
at  once  with  the  Executive,  and  the  Senate  yielding 
to  popular  influences  voted  down  Macon's  report. 
The  ministers  to  Panama  had  been  appointed,  their 
appointments  were  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  and  the 
sum  of  forty  thousand  dollars  was  voted  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  mission.  The  Government  gained 
the  victory,  but  the  results  proved  within  a  year  both 
the  correctness  and  wisdom  of  Macon's  report. 

From  this  report  and  its  cause,  President  Adams' 
message  on  the  Panama  mission,  arose  Macon's 
speech  on  the  powers  of  the  Executive  already  men 
tioned  and  which  shows  his  own  personal  views  to 
have  been  in  accord  with  his  report  which  we  know 
he  did  not  write,2  and  which  also  had  much  to  do 
with  his  attempt  to  limit  the  scope  of  the  Presi 
dent's  powers  by  special  legislation  to  be  related  in 
another  connection.  In  the  speech  he  said  first  that 
no  other  President  had  ever  claimed  the  power  to1 
create  offices,  but  that  nearly  every  other  President 
had  either  transcended  his  powers  or  acted  on  mat 
ters  in  a  way  which  compelled  Congress  to  act  some 
times  in  opposition  to  their  sentiment,  citing  the 
Monroe  doctrine  as  the  most  notable  instance  of 
Executive  action  which  had  committed  the  whole 
country  to  a  policy  not  determined  by  its  representa 
tives.  The  second  objection  he  made  to  the  exer 
cise  of  liberal  powers  by  the  Executive  was  that  it 
disturbed  the  balance  of  power  among  the  several 

*  Schouler,  III.,  363-64. 

a  Benton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  421. 

23 


354  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

departments  in  the  United  States  Government.  The 
last  point  was  that  the  people  were  generally  clamor 
ing  against  the  expansion  of  the  President's  func 
tions,  and  as  a  representative  of  the  people  he  stood 
up  to  make  his  and  their  protest  against  the  evil.1 
And  in  his  private  correspondence  at  the  time  he  was 
equally  outspoken:  "The  message  of  the  President 
seems  to  claim  all  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  which  have  heretofore  produced  so  much 
debate  and  which  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
supposed  to  have  settled;  but  so  it  is,  a  decision 
against  power  in  the  government  is  no  precedent, 
while  one  in  favor  of  it  is.  Hence  all  governments 
are  apt  to  gain  power."2  And  again  to  the  same 
correspondent  a  year  and  a  half  later  he  employs 
similar  language  but  extending  it  to  a  criticism  of 
the  people  for  allowing  each  Administration  to  name 
its  successor  by  placing  the  Secretary  of  State  before 
them  as  the  best  trained  and  most  suitable  candidate. 
"If  this  goes  on,"  he  continued,  "each  President 
will  appoint  his  successor." 

Macon's  would-be  detractors,  especially  those  in 
his  own  State,  have  maintained  that  he  never  ran 
counter  to  public  sentiment,  that  he  never  risked 
his  popularity  by  upholding  what  the  people  op 
posed.  It  need  only  be  said  that  in  the  long  Panama 
contest  he  constantly  opposed  the  popular  view  and, 
from  1823  to  1828,  he  opposed  the  election  of  Jack 
son  though  his  own  constituents  met  at  Warrenton 
to  nominate  Jackson  and  Calhoun.3  It  was  not  his 
intention  persistently  and  for  long  periods  to  oppose 
his  views  to  those  of  his  constituents.  This  would 
have  been  contrary  to  his  idea  of  the  meaning  of 

1  BentonV  Abridgment,  VIII.,  550-51- 

2  Macon  to  Yancey,  December  6,  1825. 

3  See  letter  quoted  on  p.  338. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE;,  1820-1828.  355 

representative  government.  The  people  were,  in 
accordance  with  the  tenets  of  his  party,  his  last  re 
sort  and  final  authority ;  but  he  understood  the  mean 
ing  of  temporary  excitement  and  enthusiasm  and  so 
he  could  set  himself  strongly  against  the  popular  will 
thus  influenced  if  it  seemed  necessary. 

In  connection  with  his  speech  on  the  powers  of 
the  Executive  some  mention  of  his  attitude  towards 
the  Administration  in  its  war  with  Georgia  ought  to 
be  made.  This  outbreak  on  the  part  of  the  lower 
South  was  the  result  of  two  influences  at  work  in  the 
Southern  mind :  ( i )  That  the  bounds  of  the  slave 
power  must  be  expanded  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and 
(2)  that  the  Northern  States  in  accord  with  their 
demands  in  the  Missouri  compromise,  were,  with 
the  help  of  the  General  Government,  rapidly  extend 
ing  their  boundaries  in  the  Northwest.  The  ques 
tion  in  dispute  in  1825-26  was :  How  would  the 
United  States  extinguish  the  Indian  title  to  lands 
occupied  by  the  Creek  nation  within  the  limits  of  the 
State  of  Georgia?  In  1802  the  National  Govern 
ment  had  agreed  to  do  this  for  the  State  of  Georgia 
in  consideration  of  the  cession  by  that  State  of  the 
territory  out  of  which  the  States  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi  had  been  carved.  The  National  Gov 
ernment,  as  is  usual  with  all  governments,  was  slow 
to  execute  the  conditions  of  the  contract  and  the 
Georgians,  face  to  face  with  the  Indians,  whose 
lands  they  coveted,  kept  up  a  state  of  intermittent 
warfare  on  their  western  borders.  In  1824  the 
Cherokees  and  Creeks,  the  tribes  then  occupying  the 
disputed  territory,  declared  they  would  never  give 
up  their  lands.  The  advancing  plantation  builders 
accused  the  National  Government  of  instigating  this 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  "because," 
said  thev,  "the  Administration  is  desirous  to  check 


356  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

the  expansion  of  the  slave  power."  A  treaty  was 
soon  negotiated  betwen  the  United  States  and  the 
Chief  of  the  Creeks,  General  Mclntosh,  by  which 
the  two  tribes  yielded  their  claim  to  large  areas  of 
land  in  Georgia  and  Alabama.  As  soon  as  the  news 
of  the  treaty  was  published  the  Indians  fell  upon 
Mclntosh  and  killed  him.  They  refused  to  recog 
nize  the  Mclntosh  treaty,  and  the  United  States 
Government,  seeing  Georgia  going  forward  as 
though  the  recent  treaty  were  entirely  valid,  called 
on  the  Governor  of  Georgia  to  have  the  surveying 
of  the  lands  in  question  suspended  until  further 
notice.  A  United  States  officer,  General  Gaines, 
was  ordered  to  the  scene.  Governor  Troup  had 
already  taken  measures  to  remove  the  Indians  beyond 
the  bounds  of  the  State  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
repudiated  treaty ;  the  United  States  could  not  assent 
to  this.  Gaines  and  Troup  were  about  to  bring  on  a 
war  between  the  National  and  State  governments. 
All  Georgia  was  aflame  and  the  Governor  called  on 
the  people  to  "stand  to  their  arms."  Troup  finally 
agreed  to  wait  till  another  treaty  could  be  agreed 
upon  and,  after  a  year  or  two  more  of  bloodshed  on 
the  Georgia  border  and  of  harrassing  delay  in  the 
negotiations  which  were  being  conducted  in  Wash 
ington,  the  Indians  were  removed  to  lands  beyond 
the  Mississippi — an  event  remembered  and  talked  of 
to-day  by  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  the  section  as  the 
most  important  event  after  the  Revolution  in  the 
development  of  the  lower  South. 

What  made  the  subject  so  difficult  and  at  the 
same  time  so  important  was  the  spirit  already  re 
ferred  to,  the  spirit  of  rapid  expansion  on  the  part 
of  the  slave  States,  which  was  even  then  casting 
longing  eyes  towards  the  fertile  plains  of  Texas, 
and  which,  distrusting  all  the  professions  of  the 


IN  THE  U.  S.   SENATE,   1820-1828.  357 

General  Government,  was  determined  to  work  out 
its  own  destiny  under  the  sanction  of  State  author 
ity.  Macon  shared  this  spirit  already,  as  appears 
in  the  following  brief  comment :  "It  seems  somewhat 
strange  that  the  Federal  Government  should  be  able 
to  acquire  so  much  land  from  the  Indians  to  the 
West  and  Northwest  and  so  little  to  the  South  and 
Southwest.  Georgia  claims  of  her  to  fulfil  the  bar 
gains  made  many  years  since  and  no  other  State 
or  territory  has  a  bargain  by  which  to  claim  the  ex 
tinction  of  the  Indian  title."1 

There  remain  two  other  lines  of  study  in  Macon's 
life  in  the  Senate — his  advocacy  of  constitutional 
amendments  and  his  standing  with  the  public.  Mon 
roe's  first  message  to  Congress  in  December,  1817, 
had  earnestly  recommended  adequate  amendments 
of  the  Constitution  in  order  to  enable  the  Govern 
ment  to  carry  on  internal  improvements.  Though 
Macon  opposed  on  principle  the  expenditure  of  pub 
lic  money  in  this  way,  except  through  the  State  gov 
ernments,  he  favored  the  proposition  of  Mpnroe  as 
the  best  method  of  settling  definitely  the  theory  of 
interpretation.  This  plan  was  generally  approved 
in  the  Southern  States.  There  was  another  com 
plaint  which  came  very  much  into  public  notice 
during  the  following  year :  the  election  of  presiden 
tial  electors  by  popular  vote  in  districts.  The 
North  Carolina  Legislature  petitioned  Congress  in 
January,  1818,  through  Macon,  for  such  an  arrange 
ment.  Only  a  few  years  before  the  change  from  the 
district  to  the  general  ticket  method  had  been  made 
in  that  State.  The  change  was  not  satisfactory. 
Many  other  States  followed  this  method  of  election 
by  general  ticket  in  the  legislature;  but  there  was 
no  uniformity.  The  proposition  of  North  Carolina 

i  Macon  to  Yancey,  December,  1823. 


358  NATHANIEI,   MACON. 

in  some  form  or  other  was  dicussed  at  length  at 
different  times  until  in  1824  other  amendments  to 
the  Constitution  for  allowing  internal  improvements, 
for  restricting  the  term  of  service  in  the  Presidency 
to  eight  years,  for  the  election  of  the  President  by 
popular  vote  and  for  limiting  the  Executive  patron 
age  were  added  and  all  submitted  to  a  special  com 
mittee,  which  reported  back  to  the  Senate,  but  no 
action  was  taken.  In  1825  Macon  moved  that  a 
second  committee  be  appointed.  Benton,  Macon, 
Van  Buren  and  others,  all  favoring  amendments  of 
some  kind  to  the  National  Constitution,  were  selected 
as  members.  Their  report  recommended  the  pres 
ent  plan  of  electing  the  President  and  Vice-Presi 
dent,  with  the  exception  that  Congress  should  con 
vene  every  fourth  year  to  receive  the  reports  of  the 
election  immediately,  and  if  it  appeared  that  no 
choice  had  been  made  then  a  new  election  should 
be  set  for  the  first  Thursday  and  Friday  of  Decem 
ber  following.  It  is  evident  that  dissatisfaction  with 
the  late  election  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
entered  largely  into  this  proposition.  Years  before 
Macon  had  favored  popular  elections  for  all  officers, 
both  State  and  National.  He  stated  openly  in  the 
Senate  at  this  time  that  he  had  changed  his  mind 
with  reference  to  the  President  and  that  he  favored 
some  indirect  method.  Benton  seems  to  have 
favored  a  popular  election  of  President;  but  he 
yielded  to  the  indirect  method  which  Macon  advo 
cated. 

But  this  committee  made  a  better  recommenda 
tion  than  this.  From  the  beginning  of  the  war  of 
1812  when  Madison  appointed  so  many  members  of 
Congress  to  office,  Macon  had  repeatedly  by  speech 
and  by  private  correspondence  proposed  and  urged 
an  amendment  to  the  National  Constitution  prohib- 


IN  THE  U.   S.   SENATE,   I820-I828.  359 

iting  the  President  from  ' 'appointing  to  office  any 
member  of  Congress  until  the  expiration  of  the 
presidential  term  in  which  such  person  shall  have 
served  as  a  Senator  or  Representative."  The  evil 
which  he  meant  to  remedy  was,  and  is,  quite  patent. 
Macon  now  brought  forward  his  reform  and  secured 
for  it  the  endorsement  of  the  special  committee. 
The  plan  was  reported  to  the  Senate  but  was  never 
debated1  and  of  course  never  passed  either  branch 
of  Congress. 

In  December,  1825,  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke 
joined  Macon  in  the  Senate  and  the  two  old  friends 
now  more  closely  united  in  politics  and  represent 
ing  a  "solid  South"  waged  a  ceaseless  war  on  every; 
thing  Northern,  commercial  or  anti-slavery.  Ran^ 
dolph  made  his  and  Macon's  attitude  towards  the 
Missouri  Compromise  a  sort  of  political  platform  to 
which  they  adhered  most  rigidly  and  on  which  they 
were  uniting  all  Southern  congressmen.  Slavery 
was  endangered,  they  thought,  in  every  attempt  to 
extend  the  powers  of  the  Executive,  in  the  seem 
ing  lethargy  of  the  government  in  extinguishing 
the  title  of  the  Creek  Indians  to  Georgia  lands. 
Randolph,  as  he  had  done  so  often  before  in  their 
earlier  comradeship  in  the  House,  made  a  parade  of 
Macon's  friendship  by  referring  to  him  in  nearly 
every  speech  as  his  "honored"  or  "venerable  friend 
from  North  Carolina." 

They  lived  in  the  same  "mess"  in  Washington 
spending  "whole  hours  together,  in  the  long  winter 
nights,  keeping  each  other  company."2  Garland 
says:  "In  silence  they  sat  and  mused  as  the  fire 
burned.  Each  had  his  own  private  sorrows  and  do 
mestic  cares  to  brood  over;  both  felt  the  weight  of 

1  Benton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  375,  400. 

2  See  Garland's  Life  of  Randolph,  II.,  275-76. 


UNIVERSITY 


NATHANIEL    MACON. 


rears  pressing-  upon  them,  and  still  more,  the  wast 
ing  hand  of  disease.  They  had  long  since  learned  to 
look  upon  the  honors  of  the  world  as  empty  shad 
ows.  Nothing  but  the  purest  patriotism, 
and  ardent  devotion  to  their  country  and  her  noble 
institutions,  could  hold  them  to  the  discharge  of  their 
unpleasant  duties,  while  every  admonition  of  nature 
warned  them  to  lay  aside  the  harness  of  battle  and 
be  at  rest.  *  They  meditated  with  awe  and 
trembling  on  the  many  difficulties  that  now  beset 
their  path.  What  a  treasure  of  wisdom  could  those 
meditations  have  been  embodied  in  words,  and 
handed  down  for  our  instruction !"  Whether  their 
united  wisdom  was  so  great  or  their  path  of  duty 
so  thorny  need  not  be  discussed  here ;  but  it  is  cer 
tain  their  long  political  careers  were  drawing  to  a 
close  in  the  most  peaceful  bonds  of  friendship  and 
happiness  so  far  as  they  were  concerned.  As  to  the 
future  of  the  country  they  were  filled  with  misgiv 
ings  and,  fearing  the  worst,  they  had  decided  what 
the  duty  of  Southerners  was :  to  stand  for  their 
States. 

The  creed  of  these  founders  of  the  second  school 

\of  State's  rights  was  well  expressed  by  Randolph: 
"Myself  and  my  colleague,  who  with  another  gentle 
man  whom  I  shall  not  refer  to,  though  near  me, 
were  the  only  persons  whom  I  have  heard  of,  be 
longing  to  the  Southern  interest,  who  determined 
to  have  no  compromise  (the  Missouri  bill)  at  all 
on  this  subject.  They  determined  to  cavil  on  the 

I  nineteenth  part  of  a  hair  in  a  matter  of  sheer  right 
—touching  the  dearest  interests— the  life-blood  of 
the  Southern  States."1  And  again  the  same  kind  of 
principles  were  advanced  in  the  debate  on  the  Ex 
ecutive  Powers,  to  which  reference  has  been  made : 

1  Ben  ton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  475. 


IN  THE:  u.  s.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  361 

"I  trust  that  it  will  turn  out  in  the  end — whether 
our  adversaries  be  born  to  consume  the  fruits  of  the 
earth,  whether  or  not  they  belong  to  the  caterpillars 
of  the  Treasury  or  of  the  law — that  our  name,  too, 
is  Legion,  for,  sir,  we  belong  to  the  cause  and  the 
party  of  the  people;  we  do  claim  to  belong  to  the 
majority  of  this — 'nation'?  No,  sir,  I  acknowledge 
no  nation — of  this  Confederate  Republic.  For  I, 
too,  disclaim  any  master,  save  that  ancient  Common 
wealth  whose  feeble  and  unprofitable  servant  I  am.1 
I  know  there  are  gentlemen,  not  only  from  the 
Northern,  but  from  the  Southern  States,  who  think 
that  this  unhappy  question — for  such  it  is — of  negro 
slavery,  which  the  Constitution  has  vainly  attempted 
to  blink,  by  not  using  the  term,  should  never  be 
brought  into  public  notice,  more  especially  into  that 
of  Congress,  and  most  especially  here.  Sir,  with 
every  due  respect  for  the  gentlemen  who  think  so, 
I  differ  from  them  toto  coelo.  Sir,  it  is  a  thing 
which  can  not  be  hid — it  is  not  a  dry-rot  that  you 
can  cover  with  the  carpet,  until  the  house  tumbles 
about  your  ears — you  might  as  well  try  to  hide  a 
volcano  in  full  operation — it  can  not  be  hid ;  it  is  a 
cancer  in  your  face,  and  must  be  treated  secundum 
artem."1 

These  were  the  ideas  for  which  these  two  friends 
stood.  They  spoke  of  Senators  from  Northern 
States  as  our  adversaries  and  of  their  colleagues 
from  Southern  States  as  our  brethren.  And  they 
had  succeeded  by  the  help  of  events,  and  especially 
by  the  help  of  Henry  Clay,  in  converting  John  C. 
Calhoun  and  his  fellow  South  Carolinians,  William 
R.  King  and  others  of  the  far  South  to  their  views. 
And  outside  of  Congress  there  was  rapidly  maturing 

1  Benton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  475. 

2  Speech  of  March  2,  1826. 


362  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

under  the  leadership  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  in 
Virginia,  of  Troup  and  others  in  Georgia,  a  school 
of  politicians  who  were  returning  to  the  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions  as  their  chart  and  compass. 
These  celebrated  resolutions  were  resurrected  and 
brought  into  the  public  prints ;  their  author,  Jeffer 
son,  was  called  on  to  express  himself  on  public 
affairs.  His  advice  looked  backwards,  too,  to  the 
days  of  his  own  great  struggle.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  Macon,  a  living  representative  of  the  rigid 
and  austere  democracy  which  won  that  contest  and 
regarded  Jefferson  as  the  first,  the  truest  and  greatest 
American,  was  looked  up  to  by  this  younger  school 
in  Virginia  with  esteem  and  veneration.  Jefferson 
himself  wrote  him  in  one  of  his  last  letters,  dated 
February  24,  1826:  "I  am  particularly  happy  to  per 
ceive  that  you  retain  health  and  spirits  still  man 
fully  to  maintain  our  good  old  principle  of  cherish 
ing  and  fortifying  the  rights  and  authorities  of  the 
people  in  opposition  to  those  who  fear  them,  who 
wish  to  take  all  power  from  them  and  transfer  all 
to  Washington.  The  latter  may  call  themselves 
republicans  if  they  please,  but  the  school  of  Venice 
and  all  of  this  principle  I  call  tories;  for  consolida 
tion  is  but  toryism  in  disguise,  its  object  being  to 
withdraw  their  acts  as  far  as  possible  from  the  ken 
of  the  people.  God  bless  you  and  preserve  you  many 
and  long  years."1  This  letter,  written  when  dis 
satisfaction  with  the  Administration  was  running 
high,  was  significant,  and  had  without  doubt  some 
circulation  among  "good  republicans"  in  Congress 
during  the  debate  on  the  Panama  Mission  then  in 
progress. 

But  Macon  was  already  popular  in  Virginia.     His 
influence  there  had  been  great  in  the  Crawford  cam- 

i  Jefferson's  Writings  (  Ford),  X.,  378. 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  363 

paign.  The  Democrats  in  the  Virginia  Legislature 
held  a  caucus  in  February,  1824,  for  the  purpose  of 
nominating  candidates  for  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent.  Macon  received  six  votes  for  the  first  place 
on  the  ticket  and  eleven  for  the  second.1  And  when 
the  electoral  vote  was  finally  cast  Macon  received 
the  whole  vote  of  Virginia  for  the  Vice-Presidency.2 
And  in  June,  1824,  when  it  was  seen  that  Craw 
ford's  ill  health  was  likely  to  prove  fatal,  or  at  least 
to  defeat  his  election,  George  M.  Troup,  the  mili 
tant  governor  of  Georgia  and  ardent  Southerner, 
wrote  Macon :  "In  this  unfortunate  event  I  know  of 
no  person  who  would  unite  so  extensively  the  public 
sentiments  of  the  Southern  Country  in  his  favor  as 
yourself.  In  such  an  unhappy  result  therefore,  unless 
you  forbid  it  I  will  take  the  liberty  to  propagate  my 
opinion  as  diffusively  as  I  can.  In  the  administra 
tion  of  the  General  Government  we  want  virtue, 
virtue,  virtue."  This  shows  clearly  enough  that 
Macon  was  not  the  recipient  of  a  merely  compli 
mentary  vote  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  as  has  been 
so  often  contended;  that  the  South  was  completing 
that  consolidation  which  began  in  1820,  was  inter 
rupted  by  the  Jackson  campaigns  and  the  prema 
ture  Nullification  contest  in  South  Carolina, 
set  in  again  when  the  Texas  question  was  up,  and 
culminated  in  1861.  Macon  was  voted  for  in  real 
earnest  in  the  Virginia  caucus  and  the  hot-headed 
Georgia  Governor  advocated  him  for  the  Vice-Presi 
dency,  believing  that  the  proposed  candidate  for 
the  Presidency  would  be  incapacitated  by  ill  health 
for  the  office.  It  was  not  claimed  that  Macon  was 
a  great  man,  but  a  virtuous  one,  on  whom  the  "  South 
Country"  could  rely.  And  it  will  have  been  noted 

1  Richmond  Enquirer,  February  17,  1824. 

2  Benton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  324. 


364  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

more  than  once  in  these  pages  that  Macon  was  ad 
dressed  as  the  friend  of  the  "South  Country."  He 
and  Randolph  spoke  constantly  of  their  only  mas 
ters — North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  From  the 
three  or  four  men  in  1820  who  "would  hear  of  no 
compromise  on  the  slavery  question,"  the  small 
group  had  grown  to  be  a  great  party  in  1824-28 — a 
party  which  claimed  that  slavery  or  no  slavery  was 
at  bottom  the  only  question  in  national  politics.  That 
they  did  not  keep  together  in  1828,  1832  and  1840, 
was  due  to  causes  not  within  the  scope  of  this  study 
to  discuss. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  plan  of  that  intriguing 
day  was  that  which  proposed  that  Macon  should 
become  Adams'  running  mate  in  1828.  Adams  knew 
that  Calhoun  and  Clay,  and  even  Webster,  were 
all  intriguing  against  him;  and  day  after  day 
brought  new  proofs  of  the  hostility  of  the  Senate. 
Randolph  was  allowed  to  harangue  that  dignified 
body  five  hours  at  a  time  on  the  President's  dis 
honesty  and  incapacity.  The  President  was  ambi 
tious  above  all  others  to  be  re-elected.  His  only 
hope  of  success  lay  in  a  combination  with  some 
of  his  opponents  from  the  South.  His  great  com 
petitor  and  political  foe  was  Jackson ;  and  Jackson's 
nominal  friend  was  Calhoun,  but  every  one  knew  the 
great  South  Carolinian  was  very  ambitious  to  be 
come  head  of  the  ticket  instead  of  second,  as  he  had 
been  in  1824.  Macon  opposed  Jackson  vigorously 
until  very  late  in  the  administration.  Randolph, 
Adams'  bitterest  political  enemy,  disliked  Jackson 
and  neither  Macon  nor  Randolph  were  friendly  to 
Calhoun  because  of  his  earlier  career.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  President  made  overtures  to 
Macon's  friends  that  he  should  become  candidate 
for  the  Vice-Presidency.  Macon  was  popular  at 


IN  THE  U.  S.  SENATE,   1820-1828.  365 

the  far  South  for  his  uncompromising  attitude  on 
the  slavery  question  since  1820;  his  own  State  was 
ready  to  do  him  honor ;  and  Virginia,  coming  more 
and  more  under  the  influence  of  strictest  States' 
rights  ideas,  was  ready  to  vote  for  him  a  second 
time  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  Such  a  combination 
might,  so  it  was  thought,  break  Jackson's  hold  on 
the  South  and  bring  Adams  to  his  much  coveted 
goal. 

Just  how  Macon  received  the  proposition  can  not 
be  determined  from  our  sources  of  information.  In 
all  probability  he  paid  little  heed  to  it,  seeing  how 
utterly  inconsistent  such  a  position  would  be  for 
him.  Had  he  not  been  chief  among  the  opponents 
of  the  President?  The  plan  is  only  to  be  viewed 
as  one  of  the  many  made  during  that  stormy  admin 
istration.  Yet  the  President  honored  Macon  and 
Macon,  unlike  Randolph,  believed  in  the  upright 
ness  of  Adams.  Nothing  came  of  the  scheme.  It 
deserves  attention  here  only  as  evidence  of  Macon's 
standing  at  the  time  and  of  the  desperate  shifts  of 
the  time  for  gaming  the  Presidency. 

The  last  honor  conferred  on  Macon  while  in  the 
Senate  was  his  election  to  succeed  John  Gailliard  of 
South  Carolina  as  President  pro  tempore  of  that 
body.  It  was  not  without  a  struggle  on  the  part 
of  his  friends  that  he  was  successful.  Seventeen 
ballots  were  required  before  they  could  secure  a 
majority  of  the  votes.1  But  Macon's  service  in  the 
Speaker's  chair  during  the  two  years  following  was 
small,  for  Calhoun  was  almost  invariably  present. 

As  another  presidential  campaign  drew  near  Ma 
con  began  to  cast  about  for  a  suitable  man.  North 
Carolina  would  be  influenced  by  his  decision,  not 
withstanding  the  popularity  of  Jackson.  The  fol- 

1  Benton's  Abridgment,  VIII.,  593. 


366  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

lowing  cautious  language  appears  in  a  letter  of 
March  31,  1826:  "The  next  presidential  contest  will 
probably  be  between  A.  and  J.  I  have  often  been 
asked  which  I  shall  support  if  only  these  two  were 
up.  I  answered  it  was  time  enough  to  decide ;  that 
unless  A.  changed  his  measures,  I  should  not  support 
him  and  that  I  did  not  wish  to  see  J.  president,  and 
that  I  did  not  mean  at  this  time  to  commit  myself." 
In  the  same  letter  he  gives  expression  to  a  fear  that 
Jackson  would,  if  elected,  introduce  the  practice  of 
rotation  in  office.  He  was  disgusted  at  the  idea  and 
always  vigorously  opposed  the  use  of  patronage  by 
the  Executive.  Indeed  it  was  one  of  his  favorite 
doctrines  that  all  patronage  should  be  taken  from 
the  President  and  lodged  in  some  unpartisan  board, 
not  in  Congress  and  not  even  open  to  members  of 
Congress,  so  jealous  was  he  of  the  abuse  of  the  pow 
ers  of.  office.  But  notwithstanding  this,  after  Cal- 
hourrs  partial  conversion  to  strict  construction  prin 
ciples,  hi?  vote  on  the  tariff  bill  and  his  quarrel  with 
the  Administration  in  1827,  Macon  inclined  to  give 
his  support  to  Jackson,  who  meanwhile  had  renewed 
his  po.1it?cal  friendship  with  Calhoun.  About  this 
time  the  National  Intelligencer,  the  most  powerful 
newspaper  in  the  country,  came  out  for  Adams. 
Macon  wrote  Yancey:  "The  National  Intelligencer 
has  certainly  changed  its  character.  The  Raleigh 
Ri  Bister  follows  the  Intelligencer  as  truly  as  the  big 
wheel  ci  a  wagon  follows  the  little  one.  Neither 
the  Intelligencer  nor  the  Register  are  calculated  for 
the  interest  of  North  Carolina,  though  they  may  suit 
Washington  City  and  the  Administration."  By  De 
cember,  1827,  he  had  given  Jackson  his  support,1  and 
appeared  to  think  the  candidate  would  be  elected. 
The  reasons  for  his  change  were  strictly  sectional. 

i  Garland's  I,ife  of  Randolph,  II.,  294. 


IN  THE  u.  s.  SENATE,  1820-1828.  367 

He  thought  Jackson  would  be  able  to  unite  Penn 
sylvania  and  New  York  with  the  Southerners  in 
national  politics,  though  he  feared  his  military  habits. 
With  Calhoun,  however,  he  became  content,  and, 
tempered  by  the  influence  of  the  latter,  Macon  hoped 
that  Jackson  would  become  a  constitutional  Presi 
dent,  that  is,  a  strict  constructionist  and  State  rights 
man.  Yet  he  said :  "It  is  only  a  scuffle  for  the 
Presidency,  rather  a  scuffle  for  men  than  principles, 
but  this  ought  not  to  prevent  our  trying  to  get  the 
one  we  prefer,  hence  I  go  for  Jackson."  He  was 
then  under  the  shadow  of  the  "tariff  of  abomina 
tions,"  and  no  matter  how  hopeful  as  to  the  success 
of  his  candidate,  he  felt  that  the  great  economic 
struggle  was  going  once  more  against  the  South. 

After  the  passage  of  the  tariff  bill  of  1828,  in  one 
of  his  last  letters  from  Washington,  Macon  wrote, 
giving  the  James  and  the  Mississippi  rivers,  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the 
Alleghany  mountains  as  the  true  boundaries  of  the 
South :  "The  Southern  country  is  nearly  ruined. 
They  must  save  themselves  by  not  buying  what  is 
not  obliged  to  be  bought ;  do  as  they  did  in  the  war 
of  the  Revolution."  The  tariff  and  paper  money 
systems,  he  thought,  had  wrought  the  ruin;  and  if 
ever  that  section  should  become  prosperous  again, 
it  would  be  by  means  of  manufacturing,  for  which 
there  was  ample  water  power.  To  show  how  closely 
he  and  Randolph  agreed  on  this  subject,  a  quota 
tion  of  one  of  Randolph's  letters  written  a  year  later 
from  Washington  says:  "The  operation  of  the 
present  government,  like  a  debt  at  usurious  interest, 
must  destroy  the  whole  South.  It  eats  like  a  canker 
into  our  very  core.  South  Carolina  must  become 
bankrupt  and  depopulated.  *  *  *  I  am  too  old 
to  move,  or  the  end  of  this  year  should  not  find  me 
a  resident  of  Virginia." 


368  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

Such  were  the  feelings  of  these  two  ardent  South 
erners  and  life-long  companions,  worn  out  in  the 
service  of  their  States,  when  Macon,  before  the  re 
assembling  of  Congress  in  December,  1828,  wrote 
the  following  characteristic  letter  to  the  General 
Assembly  of  North  Carolina:  "Age  and  infirmity 
render  it  proper  for  me  to  retire  from  public  service. 
I  therefore  resign  the  appointment  of  Senator  to  the 
Senate  of  the  U.  S.,  that  of  Trustee  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  the  State,  and  that  of  Justice  of  the  Peace 
for  the  county  of  Warren. 

"In  retiring  from  the  service  of  the  State,  I  want 
words  to  convey  to  the  Legislature,  and  through 
them  to  the  people,  my  thanks  and  gratitude  for 
their  kindness  and  confidence  reposed  in  me.  There 
are  feelings  which  words  can  not  express.  Mine 
are  of  this  kind.  I  may,  however,  be  permitted  to 
add  that  no  person  can  be  under  more  obligations  to 
a  State  than  I  am  to  North  Carolina,  nor  feel  them 
more  strongly,  and  that  duty  alone  has  induced  me 
to  resign."1 

On  the  back  of  the  letter  to  the  Legislature  ap 
pears  his  own  sketch  of  his  life :  "While  at  Prince 
ton,  New  Jersey,  in  1776,  I  served  a  short  tour  of 
militia  duty.  After  the  fall  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  (12 
May,  1780),  I  served  in  the  militia  till  the  prelimi 
nary  articles  of  peace  were  signed  (30  November, 
1782),  and  never  received  or  charged  a  cent  for 
militia  duty  anywhere.  I  never  solicited  any  man 
to  vote  for  me,  or  hinted  to  him  that  I  wished  him 
to  do  so.  Nor  did  I  ever  solicit  any  person  to  make 
interest  for  me  to  be  elected  to  any  place.  When 
elected  to  the  U.  S.  Senate,  I  did  not  receive  double 
pay  for  traveling."2 

*  Letter  dated  Buck  Spring,  Nov.  14,  1828. 
yettuitaebobso°lettehe  mileage  Privile&e  which  then  prevailed  and  is  not 


IN   THE   U.    S.    SENATE,    1820-1828.  369 

"Twice  offered  the  office  of  Postmaster-General— 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  R.  3  times  successively, 
1801-1807." 

This  short  letter  and  postscript  make  a  true  com 
mentary  on  the  character  of  the  man.  Thus  ended 
his  active  political  life  with  the  close  of  his  sixty- 
ninth  year.  He  had  been  in  Congress  thirty-seven 
years  without  interruption,  and  forty-two  in  public 
life.  He  had  grown  to  be  exceedingly  popular  in 
the  South ;  his  later  years  in  Congress  had  witnessed 
the  formation  of  the  extreme  State's  Rights  party, 
of  which  he  was  a  foremost  leader,  and  to  which 
Calhoun  had  already  given  his  allegiance.  But  it 
was  his  hope  now  that  he  might  have  ten  years  of 
quiet  retirement  at  his  home  in  Warren  county, 
some  miles  from  the  nearest  town  or  postoffice,  and 
he  resolutely  withdrew  from  the  public  service. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
MACON'S  LAST  YEARS. 

The  last  years  of  Macon's  life,  with  the  exception 
of  his  activity  in  the  Convention  of  1835  and  his 
share  in  the  election  of  Van  Buren,  were  spent  in  a 
quiet  and  peaceful  retirement  at  his  plantation  near 
the  Roanoke,  Buck  Spring.  Like  Washington  and 
Jefferson,  he  thought  the  most  fitting  close  to  a  long 
political  career  was  on  a  plantation  far  removed 
from  the  centres  of  life  and  turmoil.  His  postoffice 
was  twelve  miles  distant,  and  he  did  not  get  his  mail 
oftener  than  once  a  week,  and  many  times  two  weeks 
passed  without  his  receiving  a  word  from  the  out 
side  world. 

Of  the  manner  of  this  life  on  the  Roanoke,  not 
much  is  to  be  said,  because  we  know  so  little  of  the 
man  except  where  he  touched  the  public  life  of  his 
State  and  Nation.  He  had  divided  his  property 
into  three  equal  shares  soon  after  the  marriage  of 
his  youngest  daughter  in  1807,  giving  each  child  a 
third  of  his  estate  and  reserving  for  himself  a  third. 
This,  he  said,  was  the  just  and  true  policy  of  a 
father,  since  it  would  give  help  to  the  younger  gener 
ation  at  the  time  it  was  most  needed.  Before  1830 
Macon's  share  had  grown  again  to  considerable  pro 
portions.  His  estate  embraced  two  thousand  acres 
of  land,  well  improved  and  cultivated  by  about 
seventy  negroes.1  For  his  pastime  and  pleasure  he 
kept  ten  thoroughbred  horses,  though  not  so  many 
were  ready  for  the  saddle  at  any  one  time,  since  he 
raised  his  own  stock.  His  extraordinary  love  for 
thoroughbreds  is  manifested  in  his  keeping  the 

i  Macon's  will  in  Warren  County  Records. 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  371 

record  of  their  births  on  the  fly-leaf  of  the  family 
Bible.1  The  fox  chase,  in  which  he  engaged  up  to 
the  very  last  year  of  his  life,  was  one  of  his  special 
delights,  and  many  a  time  Congressmen  going  to 
and  from  the  National  capital  turned  aside  to  spend 
a  day  or  two  with  Macon  and  to  engage  with  him  in 
this  popular  Southern  sport.  Like  Jefferson  and 
the  other  older  gentlemen  of  the  old  regime  of  that 
day,  Macon  furnished  his  guests  with  well-groomed 
horses  on  each  occasion,  and  it  was  oft-times  with 
great  difficulty  that  the  gentleman  of  the  younger 
generation  could  keep  his  seat  on  a  steed  that  leaped 
fences  and  hillside  gullies  with  almost  as  much 
ease  as  the  fox  himself. 

Buck  Spring  was  a  sort  of  Mecca  in  upper  North 
Carolina,  where  its  sage  discoursed  of  men  and 
things  a  half  century  old  with  amazing  accuracy. 
National  and  State  politics  since  1776  was  his  theme. 
He  knew  nearly  every  man  who  sat  in  the  North 
Carolina  Constitutional  Convention  which  met  at 
Halifax,2  and  he  had  known  every  prominent  man 
in  National  politics  since  1789.  He  made  a  point  of 
relating  accurately  the  course  of  events  leading  up 
to  the  great  contest  of  1800-1801,  and  of  giving  the 
attitude,  without  animosity  or  feeling,  of  the  princi 
pal  actors  in  that  struggle.3  A  good  instance  of  this 
was  his  account  of  the  mock  serenades  given  Vice- 
President  Jefferson  by  the  young  aristocrats  of  Phil 
adelphia  in  1799-1800,  in  which  the  rogue's  march 
and  other  pieces  of  Jacobin  music  were  played  under 
his  window.  So  thorough  was  this  knowledge  of 
the  past  that  the  members  of  the  North  Carolina 
Constitutional  Convention,  which  met  a  few  years 

1  This  Bible,  now  in  the  possession  of  Miss  Laura  Alston  of  Warren- 
ton,  shows  a  record  of  the  births  of  his  horses  from  1800  to  1837. 

2  See  his  speech  in  the  North  Carolina  Convention  of  1835— Debates,  176. 

3  Southern  History  Association  Publications,  IV.,  11-12. 


372  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

later,  called  on  him  repeatedly  for  precedents  in  the 
early  policy  of  his  party. 

His  home  had  not  changed  with  his  growth  into  a 
national  character,  but  had  remained  the  same  as 
when  he  first  built  it.  In  fact,  he  lived  alone,  except 
when  visitors  called,  with  his  slave  cabins  cluster 
ing  around  and  the  pickaninnies  frolicking  about 
the  great  shady  grove.  No  extravagance  was  in 
dulged  ;  his  table  was  supplied  from  his  own  pantry 
and  garden,  and  the  fare  was  simple,  indeed.  Yet 
his  large  cellar  for  wines  and  liquors  was  kept  well 
stocked.  His  favorite  drink  was  corn  whiskey,  which 
he  took  at  the  beginning  of  each  meal ;  but  he  never 
offered  it  to  anyone  else,  on  the  ground  that  it  might 
be  a  temptation.  He  regretted  his  appetite  for 
drink,  saying  that  the  drink  habit  was  a  great  and 
unfortunate  evil.  Wine  was  kept,  however,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  friends,  who  called  for  it  when  they 
desired;  and  Macon's  wine  was  noted  for  its  age 
and  flavor.  His  demeanor  in  the  home  was  easy, 
and  his  manners  affable ;  the  stranger,  says  Govan^  a 
South  Carolina  Congressman  who  visited  him  in 
1825,  was  made  to  feel  himself  at  home  and  under  a 
hospitable  roof.  His  personal  magnetism  and  dig 
nity  were  not  disproportionate  to  his  rank  in  the 
State  and  Nation.  An  excellent  illustration  of  this 
has  been  handed  down  by  tradition  in  Halifax  coun 
ty.1  An  important  lawsuit  was  to  come  before  the 
Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  in  Halifax  about  1830. 
The  point  at  issue  was  the  validity  of  a  will.  The 
suit  depended  on  Macon's  evidence.  Gavin  Hogg, 
a  prominent  lawyer  of  the  day,  declared  in  bold 
braggadocio  that  he  would  examine  Macon  in  such 
a  way  as  to  break  down  his  evidence,  and  thus  de 
stroy  the  will.  Hogg  was  to  receive  a  fee  of  five 

i  Related  by  Hon.  Josephus  Daniels  of  Raleigh. 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  373 

hundred  dollars  if  he  discredited  Macon's  testimony 
—a  large  fee  at  that  time.  But  when  the  suit  was 
called,  and  Macon  appeared  in  the  court-room,  Hogg 
began  to  feel  uneasy;  he  went  to  the  witness,  who 
received  him  so  suavely  and  so  overcame  him  by 
his  personality  that  the  lawyer  gave  up  his  plan,  and 
declined  to  cross-question  Nathaniel  Macon,  decid 
ing  to  accept  his  statements  as  given,  though  this 
meant  the  loss  of  the  suit. 

The  relations  of  the  retired  Sage  of  Buck  Spring, 
despite  the  homely  name,  with  his  neighbors  were 
such  as  few  men  and  communities  have  ever  en 
joyed.  Everyone,  high  and  low,  visited  him  with 
out  ceremony.  And  he  returned  their  visits,  thus 
keeping  in  close  contact  with  all  classes  of  people 
for  miles  around.  An  aged  man  who  used  to  work 
on  Macon's  plantation  tells  of  instances  of  Macon's 
going  to  his  father's  house  and  upbraiding  him  for 
not  keeping  up  his  visits  as  of  old.  At  a  country 
dance  young  Joseph  Jones,  of  Shocco,  made  some 
blunder,  and  Macon,  who,  even  at  his  advanced  age, 
sometimes  attended  such  meetings  of  the  young, 
called  Jones'  attention  to  his  error  on  the  ground  \ 
that  the  young  man  was  "a  kinsman,"  and  as  such 
should  know  the  right  thing.  In  dealing  with  his 
relatives,  as  well  as  with  his  neighbors,  he  was  most 
careful  to  require  them  to  keep  engagements  to  the  \ 
letter.  One  of  his  fears  for  the  dignity  of  public 
life  was  the  apparent  decline  in  the  character  of  the 
Justices  of  the  Peace.  He  was  almost  severe  in  his 
reprimand  of  a  young  neighbor,  Drake,1  who  de 
clined  an  appointment  as  Justice  by  the  Legislature. 
Drake  reconsidered  and  accepted  the  honor. 

Macon  took  the  greatest  interest  in  the  training  of 

i  The  father  of  Caswell  Drake  of  Warren  county. 


374  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

young  men.  On  one  occasion  he  advised  a  young 
relative  to  go  to  the  University  of  Virginia  after 
graduating  at  Chapel  Hill,  his  idea  being  that  at 
Charlottesville  the  young  man  would  come  into  con 
tact  with  men  from  the  various  sections  of  the  Uni 
ted  States.  Macon  gave  him  a  letter  to  Jefferson, 
even  though  the  latter  was  then  in  his  eighty-third 
year.  A  letter  has  recently  come  to  light1  which 
still  better  illustrates  this  side  of  Macon's  character, 
and  which  at  the  same  time  shows  something  of  the 
author's  range  of  reading.  It  was  written  from 
Washington  City,  October  20,  1814,  to  Mr.  Frank 
A.  Thompson : 

"I  could  not,  were  I  to  try,  tell  you  how  much  I 
have  been  pleased  with  reading  your  letter.  Go  on 
in  your  good  determination  and  make  yourself  an 
honor  to  your  parents  and  an  ornament  to  the  coun 
try.  I  am  so  pleased  with  your  letter  that  I  shall 
send  it  to  your  mother,  unless  you  object  to  it.  I 
feel  no  hesitation  in  saying  to  you  that  I  approve 
your  determination  to  study  law,  in  preference  to 
Physic;  besides  this,  I  think  it  right  in  all  persons, 
whether  parents  or  guardians,  to  consult  the  incli 
nation  of  young  persons  as  to  the  learned  profession 
they  wish  to  study.  If  you  should  hereafter  change 
your  opinion  and  wish  to  practice,  the  law  is  quite  as 
profitable  as  medicine,  and  as  you  prefer  the  law, 
let  me  advise  you,  while  you  are  young,  to  make 
yourself  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
England.  When  reading  it  pay  particular  atten 
tion  to  the  changes  made  in  the  Judiciary  and  ob 
serve  well  the  causes  which  induced  Parliament  to 
pass  the  laws  which  made  the  change ;  you  will  also 
notice  with  attention  the  anxiety  of  Mr.  Hume  to 

i  The  letter  is  now  in  the  Hall  of  History,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  375 

excuse  the  kings  in  every  tyrannical  act.  Next,  be 
well  acquainted  with  the  history  of  our  own  coun 
try  ;  we  ought  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  history 
of  England,  because  our  laws  and  customs  are  in 
a  very  great  measure  derived  from  her.  The  his 
tory  of  Charles  the  Fifth  contains  the  best  account 
that  I  ever  saw  of  the  feudal  system,  and  is  well 
worth  reading.  The  study  of  Physic,  if  the  lectures 
in  any  large  city  are  attended,  is  much  more  costly 
than  the  study  of  law,  and  without  attending  the 
lectures  no  great  advantage  can  be  derived  from  the 
study.  I  repeat  to  you  that  I  approve  your  choice. 
It  is  true,  as  you  state,  that  the  law  is  the  road  to 
eminence  in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  equally 
true  that  a  man  must  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
laws  in  any  other  country  to  make  a  figure  in  it  in 
public  life.  After  reading  the  before-mentioned 
books,  I  would  advise  you  to  read  the  histories  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  and  do  not  forget  the  Bible  and 
New  Testament.  With  them  every  one  ought  to  be 
well  acquainted.  A  very  good  plan  to  improve  your 
self  would  be  to  read  a  paper  in  the  Spectator  or 
Guardian,  and  then  write  one  as  near  like  it  as  you 
can.  After  writing,  compare  yours  and  the  origi 
nal  together.  This  is  the  plan  which  Dr.  Franklin, 
when  young,  adopted  to  improve  himself  and  his 
style,  and  no  man  has  written  in  a  more  easy  and 
elegant  style  than  the  Doctor.  The  reading  recom 
mended  ought  not  to  interfere  in  your  school  stud 
ies,  when  you  begin  Euclid.  Be  assured  that  it  will 
always  give  me  great  pleasure  to  render  you  any 
service  in  my  power,  and  believe  that  I  am  your 
friend,  and  that  no  one,  not  even  your  dear  mother, 
is  more  anxious  for  you  to  do  well  and  to  make 
yourself  a  man  of  first-rate  talents  and  respectabil- 


376  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

ity  than  I  am,  and  that  you  may  be  so  is  the  sincere 
wish  of 

"Yr.  friend  &  relation, 

"NATH.  MACON." 

-  Macon's  treatment  of  his  slaves  was  characteristic 
of  the  man.  Each  Sunday  morning,  when  the 
weather  permitted,  they  were  all  required  to  assem 
ble  "in  clean  clothes"  in  front  of  the  "Great  House" 
and  hear  their  master  read  to  them  from  the  Bible. 
After  the  reading  and  a  talk  from  Macon  himself, 
one  of  the  older  negroes  was  called  on  to  lead  in 
prayer.  If  any  boy  disregarded  this  regulation  of 
the  plantation  or  failed  to  come  in  his  best  clothes, 
he  was  promptly  flogged.  And  so  careful  was  Ma- 
con  in  his  observance  of  religious  exercises,  that  he 
took  all  his  "field  hands"  with  him  to  church  on 
Saturdays.  It  was  a  custom  in  the  country  then, 
and  even  now  in  North  Carolina,  to  hold  church  ser 
vices  once  a  month  on  Saturday.  Hence,  when 
simple  "Brother  Hudgins,"  the  Baptist  pastor  near 
Macon's  home,  met  his  flock,  he  had  the  honor  of 
preaching  to  the  distinguished  man  whose  negroes 
almost  filled  the  gallery.  Macon  did  not  believe  in 
emancipation.  He  held  out  no  hope  of  freedom,  no 
matter  how  faithful  the  slave.  Emancipation  meant 
to  him  the  ruin  both  of  the  negro  and  of  the  Southern 
country;  colonization  was  to  him  a  humbug  with 
which  politicians  hoped  to  catch  votes.  Kindly 
treatment,  steady  work  and  ample  food  and  clothing 
were  all  the  negro  could  expect.  As  to  the  negro's 
ever  becoming  a  citizen,  he  never  admitted  such  a 
possibility.  In  the  Constitutional  Convention  already 
referred  to,  he  declared  that  free  negroes  had  no 
place  in  the  State,  that  he  could  never  be  allowed  to 
vote  under  any  circumstances.  He  admitted  that 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  377 

some  of  them  had  fought  in  the  Revolution  for 
American  liberty,  but  this  did  not  entitle  them  to 
vote,  as  it  did  not  entitle  many  white  men  to  exer 
cise  the  same  privilege.  The  negro  was  the  white 
man's  property,  pure  and  simple,  and  if  by  chance,  or 
otherwise,  he  acquired  his  freedom,  good  policy 
demanded  that  he  should  enjoy  no  rank  whatever  in 
society.  It  would  incite  the  main  body  of  slaves  to 
insurrection,  which  was  so  much  feared  in  those 
days. 

One  might  be  led  by  the  attitude  of  Macon  to 
wards  religious  matters  to  think  him  a  strict  church 
man.  He  was  not  a  member  of  any  church,  though 
he  professed  to  be  of  "the  Baptist  persuasion,"  and 
he  attended  that  church  regularly.  His  family  be 
fore  him  had  been  Episcopalians,  and  his  neighbors 
when  a  boy  were  chiefly  of  that  denomination.  The 
cause  of  his  change  was  doubtless  the  heirarchical 
character  and  aristocratic  organization  of  that 
church.  The  Baptists  were  then,  as  they  are  still,  in 
tensely  democratic  in  polity  and  in  practice;  their  ». 
simple  and  unpretentious  lives  were  in  accord  with  / 
his  principles  of  life.  He  was  a  constant  and  close 
reader  of  the  Bible,  especially  of  the  Jewish  history 
and  of  Paul's  writings.  His  Bible  shows  signs  of 
much  use,  and  his  letters  during  the  last  thirty  years 
of  his  life  bear  testimony  to  his  familiarity  with  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  he  cited  book,  chapter  and  verse 
from  memory.  His  speeches,  too,  were  often  inter 
spersed  with  quotations  from  the  Mosaic  writings. 
No  other  book  was  read  half  so  much  by  him,  and 
no  other,  except  the  book  of  human  nature,  supplied 
him  with  so  many  illustrations  and  practical  truths. 

The  most  signal  honor  ever  given  a  North  Caro 
linian  came  to  Macon  in  the  naming  of  Ran- 
dolph-Macon  College,  Virginia,  in  the  year  1830. 


378  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

This  institution,  famous  throughout  the  South  for 
its  sound  educational  policy  and  for  the  men  whom 
it  has  graduated,  was  chartered  under  the  laws  of  the 
State  of  Virginia  in  February,  1830.  It  was  given 
the  name  of  Randolph  and  Macon,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  time,  in  honor  of  the  two  life-long 
friends  and  popular  public  characters  of  the  Roa- 
noke  valley.  The  college  was  located  at  Boydton,  in 
Virginia,  about  half  way  between  the  homes  of  the 
men  whose  names  it  bore.  Randolph-Macon  was 
thus  placed  near  the  boundary  line  of  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  because  it  was  to  be  the  "seminary 
of  learning"  for  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
of  these  two  States.  It  was  for  a  long  time,  how 
ever,  the  Methodist  college  for  the  whole  South; 
it  was  liberally  supported,  and  remained  the  college 
for  the  whole  of  upper  Carolina  and  lower  Virginia 
up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  There  was 
nowhere  a  better  territory  for  such  an  institution; 
the  wealth  and  culture  of  the  section,  based  essen 
tially  on  slavery  and  planting,  supplied  a  background 
to  the  new  school,  so  that  it  was  not  simply  a  fitting 
school  for  young  clergymen,  but  a  favorite  resort 
for  the  rollicking  sons  of  a  fox-hunting  gentry. 

Why  this  institution,  founded  specially  for  the 
purpose  of  advancing  Christian  education,  was 
named  for  men  neither  of  whom  openly  professed 
faith  in  the  Nazarene,  is  a  pertinent  question  here. 
The  popularity  of  Randolph  and  of  Macon,  first  of 
all,  and  second,  the  desire  to  perpetuate  the  names 
of  these  extraordinary  men,  were  the  motives.  It 
\vas,  moreover,  the  custom  in  Virginia  to  give  educa 
tional  institutions  the  names  of  popular  leaders. 
And  there  may  have  been  a  lurking  hope  in  the 
minds  of  the  founders  of  the  College  that  the  two 
old  gentlemen,  then  nearing  the  end  of  life,  the  one 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  379 

without  direct  heirs,  the  other  having  no  children 
then  alive  and  no  grandchildren  who  were  not  rea 
sonably  wealthy,  might  possibly  remember  the  young 
institution  in  their  wills.  If  this  was  their  hope,  it 
was  a  vain  one.  Neither  Randolph  nor  Macon  ever 
gave  the  school  which  bears  their  names  any  financial 
aid  whatever,  so  far  as  the  records  show.  No  written 
evidence  of  Macon's  opinion  of  the  College  and  its 
mission  has  been  found;  but  tradition  in  and  about 
Warrenton  says  he  was  sensible  of  the  honor  con 
ferred,  and  his  love  of  education  and  plans  for  better 
public  schools,  which  were  expressed  in  1835,  vouch 
for  the  correctness  of  this  view.  It  became  the 
fashion  in  a  few  years  with  the  youth  of  Warrenton 
and  the  surrounding  country  to  go  to  the  College, 
and  a  graduate  of  the  institution  of  the  year  I8441 
says  that  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  used  to  vie 
with  each  other  as  to  which  could  send  the  most 
beautiful  girls  to  the  Boydton  commencements.  Ran 
dolph's  religious  preferences  were  with  the  Church 
of  England,  not  with  the  Episcopal  Church  of 
Virginia.  So  he  leaned  rather  towards  the  Presby 
terian  college — Hampden- Sydney — of  his  own  coun 
ty,  but  made  it  no  gift.  The  statement  that  Ran- 
dolph-Macon,  a  Christian  college,  was  named  in 
honor  of  an  infidel  and  for  a  politician  who  cared 
nothing  for  the  Christian  church,  is  not  correct. 
Macon,  as  has  been  seen,  was  careful  enough  to  con 
tradict  any  such  assertion  by  his  actions;  and  Ran 
dolph's  letters,  recently  discovered  by  the  author, 
show  him  to  have  been  a  believer  in  the  Christ, 
though  not  according  to  any  of  the  particular  faiths 
then  prevalent  in  the  South. 

Notwithstanding   the    seeming    incongruity    and 
the  failure  on  the  part  of  Randolph  and  Macon  to 

1  Captain  Richard  Irby  of  Nottaway,  Va.,  now  deceased. 


380  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

leave  the  College  any  legacies,  the  Randolph-Macon 
trustees  have  never  changed  its  name;  and  it  is  to 
day  the  best  and  only  monument  of  any  importance 
ever  erected  to  their  memories. 

For  such  a  man  as  Macon  to  retire  absolutely  from 
public  life  in  such  times  as  those  of  1828  to  1837  was 
not  to  be  expected.  He  did  retire  officially,  and  he 
never  again  accepted  emoluments  for  any  service  he 
rendered  the  public.  For  example,  there  is  a  re 
ceipt  from  every  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con 
vention  of  North  Carolina  of  1835  in  the  State  De 
partment  at  Raleigh,  except  from  Macon.  He 
wished  to  give  that  service  to  the  public,  it  appears, 
and  so  refused  to  accept  any  pay,  either  for  expenses 
Or  services  rendered. 

The  first  great  question  that  agitated  the  coun 
try  after  Macon's  retirement  was  the  breaking  up  of 
Jackson's  first  Cabinet  and  of  Calhoun's  secession 
from  the  party  of  the  President.  Macon  had  sup 
ported  Jackson  and  Calhoun  in  1828,  but  only  as  a 
lesser  evil  than  Adams  and  Rush.  The  Jackson 
and  Calhoun  followings  had  joined  hands  with 
the  aim  of  getting  a  Southern  President.  Cal 
houn  himself  had  expected  to  get  Jackson's  support 
for  the  successorship ;  but  soon  after  the  new  Ad 
ministration  went  into  operation,  the  great  South 
Carolinian  saw  clearly  enough  that  the  President  was 
not  disposed  to  do  this,  that  he  was  not  even  hasty  in 
securing  a  reduction  in  the  tariff,  which  was  so  bur 
densome  to  South  Carolina.  Consequently,  Calhoun 
severed  all  connection  with  the  President  and  wrote 
his  famous  Nullification  manifesto — a  document 
based  on  Jefferson's  Virginia  and  Kentucky  res 
olutions.1  This  breach  came  in  1831.  Before 
matters  drew  to  a  crisis  in  Washington,  the  demo- 

'  Schouler,  IV.,  36-37. 


M AGON'S    lyAST   YEARS.  381 

cratic  Republicans  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina 
had  developed  John  Randolph's  and  Macon's  dogma 
of  absolute  States' -rights  to  the  point  of  instructing 
both  Representatives  and  Senators  in  Congress  how 
to  vote.  In  the  event  that  a  member  of  the  Senate 
refused  to  recognize  this  claim  of  his  legislature,  his 
resignation  was  to  be  loudly  called  for;  the  Repre 
sentative  would  be  dealt  with  at  the  next  election. 
Thomas  Ritchie,  the  editor  of  the  Richmond  En 
quirer,  was  a  champion  of  this  school  in  Virginia. 
In  North  Carolina,  Bedford  Brown,  Macon's  pre 
ferred  successor  in  the  Senate  after  the  death  of 
Bartlett  Yancey,  was  its  best  exponent.  But  the 
State  was  equally  divided  in  1828,  and  ex-Governor 
Iredell,  a  quasi-opponent  of  Macon's,  was  sent  to  the 
United  States  Senate  to  fill  out  the  unexpired  term. 
A  little  later  Bedford  Brown  was  elected  to  succeed 
John  Branch,  who  had  been  called  to  a  seat  in  Jack 
son's  Cabinet.  This  divided  the  strength  of  North s^ 
Carolina  in  the  Senate. 

The  question  of  instructing  Senators  by  the  State 
was  a  paramount  issue  in  North  Carolina's  politics 
from  the  time  of  Macon's  retirement  until  1846.  In 
1831  Willie  P.  Mangum  was  elected  to  succeed  Ire- 
dell.  Mangum  and  Brown  were  the  standard  bear 
ers  of  the  two  factions  of  the  old  Republican  party, 
Brown  being  the  strict  constructionist  and  Mangum 
the  latitudinarian,  anti-Jackson  man.  These  fac 
tions  soon  joined  in  a  fierce  contest  for  suprem 
acy.  It  was  in  this  fight  that  the  line  of  de 
marcation  was  drawn  between  the  Democrats  and 
the  Whigs,  both  claiming,  at  first,  Jefferson  as  their 
political  teacher.  At  this  time  there  were  two  politi 
cal  papers  of  importance  published  in  Raleigh:  the 
old  Raleigh  Register,  whose  proprietors,  the  Gales 
family,  had  grown  rich  in  the  service  of  the  Repub- 


382  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

lican  party,  had  been  anti-Republican  since  I828;1 
the  more  ancient  Raleigh  Star,  formerly  a  violent 
opponent  of  everything  the  Register  favored,  was 
now  a  hearty  supporter  of  Jackson.  Of  course 
\  Macon  sided  with  the  Jackson  party  and  with 
Brown,  and  -  we  have  proof  of  this  in  a  letter  of 
Macon's  to  Brown,  April  10,  1830,  in  which  he  urges 
his  correspondent  to  stand  out  for  a  payment  of 
the  National  debt,  reduction  of  the  tariff,  and  the 
abandonment  of  Clay's  internal  improvement 
schemes.  Brown  replies  that  if  the  Clay  policy  con 
tinues  "it  can  not  but  be  looked  on  with  dismay  and 
apprehension  by  those  who  are  friendly  to  preserv 
ing  the  limitations  which  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution  designed  to  impose  on  the  Federal  govern 
ment."1  He  then  brands  as  "selfish  politicians" 
those  who  have  combined  to  establish  the  "American 
system  by  which  extortions  are  to  be  practised  on  a 
portion  of  the  people  of  the  Confederacy,  a  system 
more  false  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Southern  portion 
of  America,  better  calculated  to  annihilate  the  sov 
ereignty  of  the  States,  could  not  have  been  devised." 
By  this  exchange  of  letters  it  is  seen  that  both 
Macon  and  Brown  were  supporting  Jackson. 

In  June  of  the  same  year  Macon  writes  Gallatin, 
then  a  bank  president  in  New  York,  that  he  expects 
to  make  a  public  attack  on  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  and  asks  Gallatin's  assistance.  A  long  letter 
and  a  magazine  article  favorable  to  the  bank  were 
the  responses  of  Gallatin.  Why  Macon  made  this 
move  can  not  be  determined.  There  is  some  reason 
to  believe  that  Jackson's  special  friends  approached 
Macon,  the  life-long  opponent  of  the  bank,  and 
secured  his  promise  to  attack  it.  Nothing  could 

1  See  last  chapter,  p.  366. 

2  Bedford  Brown  to  Macon,  April  29,  1830. 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  383 

have  been  more  natural  than  for  him  to  oppose 
the  bank,  and  in  view  of  his  continued  cordial  sup 
port  of  Jackson,  the  Administration  seems  to  have 
worked  up  this  opposition  nearly  two  years  before 
Clay  began  his  right  in  Congress  for  re-charter 
ing  the  National  Bank.1  The  attack  was  not 
made  general,  but  there  was  a  continuous  stream  of 
opposition  to  the  bank  and  its  friends  in  North  Caro 
lina  until  the  re-cnarter  failed,  until  Benton's  ex 
punging  resolution  was  passed  in  1836." 

When  Congress  came  together  in  1831,  Henry 
Clay  returned  to  the  Senate  to  oppose  Jackson, 
as  he  had  opposed  Monroe  in  1817-1820.  He 
adopted  a  similar  policy  to  that  waged  against  Mon 
roe,  except  that  he  was  now  in  the  Senate  with 
Webster  and  Calhoun,  both  enemies  of  Jackson,  sup 
porting  him.  There  was  never  a  stronger  coalition 
than  this.  It  was  soon  perfectly  organized,  and  a 
majority  of  both  Houses  was  gained  for  its  support. 
Clay  selected  the  bank  question  as  the  issue  of  the 
next  year — a  Presidential  year.  Jackson's  influ 
ence  was  at  this  time  at  its  lowest  ebb  as  a  result  of 
the  dissolution  of  his  Cabinet. 

In  North  Carolina  the  United  States  Bank  had 
always  been  unpopular ;  Macon  had  fought  it  at 
every  turn  for  forty  years.  But  under  the  leader 
ship  of  Mangum,  Judge  Gaston,  and  others  of  the 
same  political  faith,  the  National  Bank  was  gain 
ing  rapidly  on  the  popular  mind  in  1830.  Branch 
banks  were  established  in  all  the  large  towns,  and 
these,  in  violation  of  the  National  banking  laws, 
were  issuing  notes  in  competition  with  those  of  the 

1  See  Gallatin's  letter  of  Dec.  3,  1830,  in  The  Nation,  Jan.  15,  1903. 

2  Jackson  was  severely  censured  by  the  Senate  in  1834  for  removing 
the  Government  deposits  from  the  U.  S.  bank.     Benton  began  imme 
diately  his  long  fight  for  his  expunging  resolution,  which  was  finally 
carried  two  years  later. 


384  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

State  banks.  Since  the  National  bank  secured  these 
notes,  it  was  an  easy  thing  for  them  to  outstrip  'the 
State  institutions.  Party  alliances  in  the  old  South 
of  1830  were  arranged  strangely  enough.  Calhoun 
having  revolted  from  Jackson  and  assumed  the  posi 
tion  and  politics  of  John  Randolph,  was  looking 
about  for  support  from  any  and  all  parties.  In 
North  Carolina  and  Virginia  he  allied  with  the  pro- 
bank  and  anti-instructing  party,  that  is,  with  Maii- 
gum  and  Benjamin  W.  Leigh,  with  the  Whigs  who 
in  the  Nation  opposed  most  violently  all  that  -South 
Carolina  favored.  Macon,  who  from  1824  to  1827 
opposed  both  Jackson  and  Calhoun,  now  became  an 
ardent  Jackson  man,  and  most  determined  opponent 
of  Calhoun,  though,  as  we  shall  see,  Calhoun  was 
the  best  representative  of  Macon's  own  life-long 
political  creed,  and  in  a  few  years  he  became  its 
recognized  champion  before  the  world. 

Calhoun  had  favored  the  bank  and  internal  im 
provements  for  twenty  years,  and  Macon  had 
not  understood  the  change  of  heart,  and  so  did  not 
support  the  South  Carolinian.  Until  the  end  of 
the  war  on  the  bank,  Macon  fought  for  the  Admin 
istration,  saying  that  no  one  could  have  convinced 
him  in  1824  that  Jackson  would  ever  do  the  people 
so  great  a  service  as  he  had  done.  And  what  caused 
Macon  to  give  his  support  the  more  gladly  was  the 
steady  reduction  of  the  National  debt,  the  extinction 
of  which  had  been  his  fondest  hope  ever  since  the 
foundation  of  the  government.  This  forlorn  hope 
of  his  for  so  many  years  was  realized  two  years 
before  Macon's  death,  and  almost  contemporary  with 
this  glad  news  came  the  final  dissolution  of  the 
bank. 

Parallel  to  these  gratifying  deeds  of  Jackson  came 
others  which  were  as  displeasing  as  they  were  per- 


M AGON'S  LAST  YEARS.  385 

plexing  to  Macon.  Calhoun's  withdrawal  from  Jack 
son's  party  already  described,  and  his  famous  mani 
festo  on  nullification,  raised  "a  storm  in  the  South/' 
as  Ritchie's  Enquirer  termed  it,  which  quieted  down 
only  when  the  whole  South  lay  prostrate  at  the  feet 
of  the  National  government  in  1865.  The  founda 
tion  of  the  grievance  was  the  "tariff  of  abomina 
tions,"  passed  in  1828,  through  Clay's  instrumental 
ity,  and  which  Jackson  gave  no  promise  of  reducing 
after  he  was  made  President.  In  fact,  the  Presi 
dent  was  not  then  strong  enough  in  the  face  of  Clay's 
coalition  against  him  to  remedy  the  evils  which  bore 
so  heavily  on  the  South.  Nullification  was  Cal 
houn's  remedy.  Macon  admitted  the  right  to  nul 
lify,  but  said  the  State  so  doing  would  have  to 
secede  from  the  Union :  "  I  have  never  believed  a 
State  could  nullify  and  stay  in  the  Union,  but  have 
always  believed  that  a  State  might  secede  when  she 
pleased,  provided  she  would  pay  her  proportion  of 
the  public  debt,  and  this  right  I  have  considered  the 
best  guard  to  public  liberty  and  to  public  justice 
that  could  be  desired."1 

While  he  thus  justified  in  a  manner  the  move  ojf 
South  Carolina,  he  criticized  severely  the  President's 
proclamation  against  nullification :  "The  proclama 
tion  contains  principles  as  contrary  to  what  was  the 
Constitution  as  nullification.  It  is  the  great  error 
of  the  Administration,  which,  except  that,  has  been 
satisfactory  in  a  high  degree  to  the  people  who 
elected  the  President."2  Then  calling  to  mind  the 
Whiskey  Insurrection  in  Pennsylvania,  which  he 
had  approved,  he  said  that  South  Carolina's  case  was 
as  different  as  it  could  be.  It  was  with  feelings  of 
great  despondency  he  contemplated  the  situation, 

*  Macon  to  Samuel  P.  Carson,  February  9,  1833. 

*  1  bid. 

25 


386  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

yet  Calhoim's  position  was  exactly  what  both  Ran 
dolph  and  Macon  had  advocated  from  1820  to  1828, 
and  one  which  both  would  have  approved  but  for 
the  past  career  of  the  man  who  now  took  it.  Macon 
dreaded  war,  however,  with  all  the  earnestness  of 
his  soul,  and  most  of  all  a  civil  war,  which,  he  said, 
would  bring  the  final  downfall  of  our  free  institu 
tions. 

Macon  received  letters  from  his  former  political 
associates  urging  him  to  use  his  influence  with  the 
President  to  avert  the  calamity  which  seemed  about 
to  fall  upon  the  Nation.  He  wrote,  August  26,  to 
Jackson  condemning  his  attitude  towards  South 
Carolina,  especially  the  threat  to  send  troops  to  that 
State.  Macon  held  that  the  Government  could  not 
legally  use  force  to  maintain  the  Union.  This  was 
a  government  of  opinion,  a  confederacy  of  inde 
pendent  states,  which  could  be  peacefully  dissolved 
whenever  any  member  of  it  saw  fit.  Jackson  re 
plied  to  Macon  in  a  six-page  letter  of  great  force, 
in  which  he  justifies  his  position,  declaring  that  the 
National  government  has  authority  over  every  indi 
vidual  in  the  United  States — authority,  too,  which 
each  State  had  given  and  guaranteed  on  entering 
the  Union.  Macon's  doctrine  that  a  man  was 
a  citizen  of  his  individual  State  and  not  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  received  no  credence  with  Jackson.  The 
President  closes  with  the  following  words :  "I  send 
you  herewith  the  proclamation,  the  report  from  the 
department  by  which  it  was  seconded,  and  the  law 
passed  consummating  them.  I  hope  you  will  re 
ceive  them  as  an  earnest  of  the  high  respect  I  bear 
you,  and  if,  on  comparing  them,  you  find  the  prin 
ciples  I  have  advanced  and  the  measures  I  have 
recommended,  the  same  in  effect  with  those  which 
were  proclaimed  and  carried  out  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  387 

yourself  and  other  fathers  of  the  school  of  1798,  I 
hope  you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that  we 
follow  the  precedents  of  such  high  authority  and 
which  have  been  sanctioned  by  almost  universal  ap 
probation  of  the  country  from  that  time  to  this."1 
Macon  had  referred  to  the  proposed  plan  of  enforc 
ing  the  embargo  against  New  England  in  1807, 
which  Jefferson  outlined  and  he,  Macon,  ap 
proved,  confessing  that,  perhaps,  they  had  gone  too 
far  in  "those  hot  times."  Jackson  cited  their  prop 
osition  as  a  precedent,  and  reminded  Macon  of  his 
former  position.2  Macon  was  worsted  in  this  tilt 
with  old  Hickory,  though  in  the  most  friendly  and 
courteous  way  possible,  and,  though  there  is  only 
circumstantial  proof  of  it,  it  is  fairly  certain  that 
from  this  time  on  he  ceased  to  criticise  the  President. 
He  certainly  gave  him  his  open  support  in  all  things 
else  to  the  close  of  his  second  term. 

In  1835  Macon  was  elected  a  member  from  War 
ren  county  to  the  North  Carolina  Constitutional 
Convention.  There  had  been  pretty  steady  and  in 
creasing  complaints  against  the  Constitution  formed 
at  Halifax  because  of  its  discrimination  against  the 
West,  which  was  now  much  more  important  than 
ever  before.  Macon  had  been  identified  with  the 
East ;  he  did  not  desire  any  radical  change,  but  sim 
ply  amendments  which  should  satisfy  the  West  and 
meet  the  changed  conditions.  The  Convention  met 
in  Raleigh  early  in  June,  1835,  and  continued  its  ses 
sions  until  July  n.  Macon  was  made  president  by 
unanimous  vote,  the  word  unanimous  being  itali 
cized  by  all  the  papers  which  gave  accounts  of  the 
proceedings. 

*  Macon  Papers. 

2  American  Historical  Review,  July,  1901.  This  is  one  of  the  most  in 
teresting  letters  in  the  Macon  Papers,  and  it  deserves  to  be  read  by  all 
who  would  understand  Jackson's  attitude  at  this  crisis. 


388  NATHANIEL   A1ACON. 

Macon's  life-long  political  creed  may  be  summed 
up  here,  since  it  was  at  this  time  he  had  most  to  do 
in  shaping  the  organic  law  of  his  native  State :  ( i ) 
Suffrage  based  on  maturity  of  judgment  and  not  on 
property  holding;  but  this  was  to  be  limited  once 
for  all  to  the  white  race,  no  matter  what  the  condi 
tion  of  the  negro  be  or  become.  (2)  Public  educa 
tion  supported  by  general  taxation.  (3)  Annual 
legislatures.  (4)  The  viva  voce  method  of  voting, 
because  every  citizen  had  the  right  to  know  how  his 
representative  voted  in  the  Assembly;  and  "no  man 
should  be  ashamed,"  said  he,  "to  let  his  neighbors 
know  how  he  cast  his  vote  in  all  elections."  (5) 
Religious  liberty.  (6)  County  integrity.  (7)  All 
officers,  judges  not  excepted,  should  be  elected  for 
stated  terms,  and  not  during  good  behaviour.  With 
the  great  fads  of  that  day,  advancement  of  com 
mercial  and  internal  improvements,  he  had  little 
patience.  North  Carolina  was  an  agricultural 
community,  not  a  commercial,  and  if  her  people 
could  not  become  wealthy  and  great,  they  could 
remain  happy  and  be  virtuous.1  His  proposal  for 
public  education  applied  to  free  schools  for  white 
children,  and  included  the  State  University,  which 
he  said  should  be  moved  to  Raleigh,  "education  in 
cloisters,"  according  to  his  judgment,  "not  being 
suitable  for  young  men  in  a  free  country  where 
knowledge  of  men  and  affairs  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  a  successful  career."  Annual  legislatures,  the 
rule  of  the  past,  he  could  not  persuade  the  Conven 
tion  to  maintain ;  but  viva  voce  voting  in  the  legis 
lature  and  short  terms  of  office  he  did  succeed  in 
getting  established,  and  North  Carolina  has  re 
mained  faithful  to  his  ideas  on  these  subjects  till  the 

1  Debates  of  the  Convention  ;  to  letter  Jefferson,  February  2,  1822. 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  389 

present  time.  Religious  liberty  was  not  a  difficult 
thing  to  establish  in  a  State  where  such  a  man  as 
Judge  Gaston  was  about  the  only  person  discrimi 
nated  against;  and  the  county  system  remained  the 
same  until  after  the  deluge  of  1861-1865.  The  final 
result  was  that  the  old  Constitution  was  amended 
and  not  made  anew.  These  amendments,  in  addi 
tion  to  the  changes  already  indicated,  provided  for 
senatorial  districts  arranged  according  to  population, 
maintained  the  old  property  qualifications  for  hold 
ing  office,  and  for  voting,  and  prohibited  all  free 
negroes  from  participating  in  any  way  in  the  affairs 
of  government.  The  election  of  Governor  was  to  be 
by  popular  vote  and  not  by  the  legislature,  as  under 
the  old  Constitution.  The  new  features  mark  a 
spirit  of  liberality  towards  the  West,  in  giving  them 
their  due  voice  in  the  law-making  body  and  in  the 
election  of  Governor ;  but  there  was  also  manifest  a 
much  greater  jealousy  of  the  free  negro  than  had 
characterized  the  former  Constitutional  convention. 
Slavery  had  grown  to  be  an  institution  of  threaten 
ing  mien. 

It  will  hardly  be  surprising  that  Macon  made  a 
speech  against  accepting  the  work  of  the  Convention, 
or  of  submitting  it  to  the  people  for  ratification,  be 
cause  of  the  failure  of  his  plan  for  annual  elections, 
and  because  the  election  of  Governor  was  to  be 
by  popular  vote,  for  he  based  everything  on  yearly 
elections,  and  often  quoted  Jefferson's  dictum  that 
when  these  cease,  public  liberty  dies.  He  could 
not  sacrifice  this  principle  for  any  other  advan 
tage  whatever,  and  he  carried  this  point  so  far 
that  some  of  the  newspapers,  particularly  the  Ral 
eigh  Register  and  Raleigh  Star,  were  disposed  to 
ridicule  him.  On  the  election  of  the  chief  magis 
trate  by  the  people  he  was  not  so  inveterate  in  his 


390  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

opposition ;  though  he  opposed,  he  did  not  give  his 
reasons  in  his  speech  of  protest.  It  was  probably 
due  to  his  sense  of  the. dignity  of  the  office  and  his 
conservative  inclinations  in  all  matters  pertaining 
to  the  State.  Twenty  members  voted  against  ac 
cepting  the  work  of  the  Convention  as  a  whole. 

Macon  made  a  short  farewell  speech  in  which  he 
referred  very  gracefully  to  the  harmony  of  the  Con 
vention  and  the  mutual  forbearance  of  its  members 
in  the  sometimes  warm  debates  which  had  taken 
place.  He  closed  with  very  simple  but  characteristic 
language:  "This,  I  expect,  will  be  the  last  scene  of 
my  public  life.  We  are  about  to  separate;  and  it  is 
my  fervent  .prayer  that  you  may,  each  of  you,  reach 
home  in  safety,  and  have  a  happy  meeting  with  your 
families  and  friends,  and  that  your  days  may  be  long, 
honorable  and  happy.  While  life  is  spared,  if  any 
of  you  should  pass  through  the  country  in  which  I 
live,  I  should  be  glad  to  see  you." 

But  this  was  not  the  last  scene  of  his  public  life. 
Already  a  most  acrimonious  Presidential  campaign 
was  beginning  in  North  Carolina.  The  bank  contro 
versy,  nullification  and  the  instruction  of  Senators 
were  the  questions  which  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  people.  The  bank  question  was  involved  in  the 
Benton  expunging  resolution  which  the  Legislature 
had  instructed  Mangum  to  support.  Mangum  re 
fused  to  recognize  the  instructions  and  voted  against 
expunging.  Bedford  Brown,  his  colleague,  was 
waging  a  bitter  warfare  on  the  man  "who  refused  to 
be  instructed  by  his  State."  Nullification  was  a 
white  elephant  on  the  hands  of  the  Whigs,  for 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  Calhoun  was  supporting 
Mangum  and  his  followers  in  North  Carolina,  while 
both  Mangum  and  Brown  were  particularly  anxious 
to  repudiate  nullification  in  all  its  forms.  Each 


M AGON'S  LAST  YEARS.  391 

party  in  the  Van  Buren  campaign  charged  the  other 
with  being  milliners  and  each  with  some  degree 
of  justice,  for  the  ideas  of  Macon  and  Brown  which 
culminated  in  instructing  Senators  naturally  led  to 
nullification,  while  the  alliance  of  Calhoun  and  Man- 
gum  for  a  purpose,  could  not  be  kept  strictly  secret. 
Again  the  very  candidates  for  the  presidency  compli 
cated  matters;  Van  Buren,  the  ablest  of  our  public 
men  of  the  second  order,  was  the  regular  Jackson 
nominee,  and  to  him  not  much  objection  could  be 
made;  but  Richard  M.  Johnson  of  Kentucky,  his 
running  mate,  had  begun  his  career  in  Congress  by 
engineering  a  tariff  measure  through  the  House. 
Since  Henry  Clay's  rise  to  supremacy  he  had  been 
forced  into  the  opposition  in  that  State,  and  had 
always  been  known  for  his  obliging  politics.  It  was 
not  without  difficulty  that  such  a  man  as  Macon 
could  be  brought  to  support  him.  Hugh  L.  White, 
a  former  supporter  of  Jackson,  but  who,  on  account 
of  some  real  or  imaginary  slight,,  had  taken  up  the 
r61e  of  an  opponent  of  the  President  in  his  own 
State,  was  now  the  Whig  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency.  White  was  born  in  North  Carolina  and  this 
gave  him  a  claim  on  the  votes  of  the  State.  John 
Tyler  of  Virginia  was  White's  associate  on  the  anti- 
Jackson  ticket.  This  was  giving  both  offices  to  the 
South,  and  for  that  reason  the  ticket  appealedx 
strongly  for  sectional  support.  All  the  candidates 
had  supported  Jackson  in  1828. 

There  were  now  three  enterprising  newspapers 
published  in  Raleigh,  all  of  which  entered  heartily 
into  the  fight  for  or  against  Van  Buren.  Both  the 
old  papers,  the  Star  and  the  Register,  had  made 
unceasing  wrar  on  the  President  since  the  beginning 
of  the  bank  controversy.  In  1835,  at  the  opening 
of  the  Presidential  campaign,  both  these  papers  were 


392  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

likewise  violent  opponents  of  Jackson's  protege,  Van 
Buren,  of  the  advocates  of  the  right  of  instruction 
and  of  the  expunging  resolution,  which  was  still 
the  issue  of  the  day  in  Washington.  The  third 
paper  had  been  established  in  1834  as  an  organ  of 
the  Administration,  receiving  the  public  printing  for 
the  National  Government  at  the  very  start.  It  was 
known  as  the  Raleigh  Standard,  and  was  edited  by 
Philo  White,  who  in  1837  nad  the  distinction  of  car 
rying  the  Van  Buren  electoral  vote  to  Washington. 
White  was  an  able  editor,  and,  it  appears,  a  good 
politician;  his  ablest  successor  was  the  celebrated 
W.  W.  Holden. 

The  Van  Buren  campaign  had  been  on  a  full  year 

I  before  Macon  announced  himself.  When  he  did 
"come  out"  the  Standard  announced  in  an  editorial 
that  "Van  Buren's  political  friends  and  supporters 
in  North  Carolina  could  have  no  stronger  evidence 
than  the  approval  of  so  distinguished  a  patriot  of 
Republicanism  (Nathaniel  Macon),  that  theirs  is  the 
cause  of  Democracy  and  of  the  people."1  Long  be 
fore  this,  however,  Macon  had  decided  to  give  Van 
Buren  his  vote  and  influence.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  year  he  wrote  a.  letter  to  Van  Buren  commend 
ing  his  course  and  endorsing  Jackson's  administra 
tion.  This  letter  also  bore  the  news  that  Macon  had 
given  one  of  his  grandchildren  the  name  of  the  Vice- 
President.  Both  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  responded 
/warmly  to  this  apparently  much  appreciated  letter 

/and  the  candidate  for  the  successorship  took  special 
pains  to  announce  to  Macon  his  policy  of  non-inter 
ference  with  slavery.2  There  were  other  reasons  for 
Macon 's  supporting  Van  Buren.  They  had  worked 
long  and  hard  together  in  the  Senate  against  most  of 


1  Raleigh  Standard,  August  3,  1836. 

2  VanBuren  to  Macon,  February  13,  1836. 


M AGON'S  LAST  YEARS.  393 

the  schemes  of  John  Quincey  Adams.  They  had 
agreed  in  everything.  And  again,  when  Van  Buren 
was  candidate  for  Vice-President  in  1832,  he  had  re 
ceived  Macon's  earnest  support.  There  was  no 
other  man  in  the  Union  for  whom  Macon  would 
have  preferred  to  vote  for  the  Presidency  in  1836. 

The  Congressional  elections  held  in  August,  1835, 
had  resulted  in  the  choice  of  seven  anti-Jackson  men 
out  of  a  total  of  thirteen.  Macon's  district  re 
mained  Democratic,  and  Warren  county  gave  only 
seventy  votes  out  of  five  hundred  to  the  Whig  candi 
date.  Still,  North  Carolina  had  been  lost  to  the 
Democrats,  though  by  only  a  small  majority.  At  the 
same  election,  Virginia  "had  gone"  Democratic  by 
a  very  small  margin.  So  both  parties  began  to  put 
forth  their  utmost  efforts  to  win  in  1836.  Great  ex 
citement  was  worked  up  on  the  subject  of  abolition. 
A  citizens'  mass-meeting  was  held  in  Warrenton  in 
September,  1835,  at  which  a  committee  of  vigilance 
was  appointed  to  keep  the  people  informed  on  the 
subject  of  Northern  encroachments  on  the  rights  of 
the  slave-holding  States.  The  best  citizens  of  the 
county  took  part,  a  relative  of  Macon  presiding.1 
Similar  meetings  were  held  in  other  counties.  In 
March,  1836,  a  second  Warren  county  meeting  gave 
enthusiastic  endorsement  to  Van  Buren  for  Presi 
dent. 

April  9  General  Henry  Blount,  of  Nash  county, 
as  a  representative  man  from  the  tenth  district, 
wrote  Macon  asking  him  to  offer  himself  as  a  Van 
Buren  elector.  Macon  declined,  but  at  the  same 
time  he  stated  positively  that  he  should  vote  for  a 
Van  Buren  elector,  and  added :  "If  the  wisest  man 
living  had  have  predicted  that  Jackson  would  have 
done  half  the  good  he  has  for  the  people,  no  one 

i  Raleigh  Standard,  September  10,  1836. 


39-i  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

would  have  believed  him.  His  doings  are  known  to 
everybody,  and  need  not  be  repeated.  He  was  man 
fully  abused,  because  France  would  not  execute  the 
treaty,  but  the  people  have  manfully  supported  him, 
and  will,  I  hope,  elect  a  successor  who  will  do  like 
(-him."  As  a  result  of  this  and  other  overtures,  Ma- 
con  formally  announced  his  willingness  to  become  a 
(Democratic  elector  in  June.  This  decision  became 
known  throughout  the  State  during  July,  and,  as 
already  mentioned,  the  Raleigh  Standard  made  much 
of  it. 

^  On  the  second  Thursday  in  August,  1836,  the  first 
Governor  under  the  new  Constitution  was  to  be 
chosen.  Edward  B.  Dudley,  president  of  the  Wil 
mington  and  Weldon  Railroad,  was  the  Whig  candi 
date  ;  Richard  Dobbs  Speight,  son  of  a  former  Gov 
ernor  and  the  present  incumbent,  was  the  Demo 
cratic  nominee.  An  exciting  campaign,  in  which 
public  dinners  and  long  toasts  were  the  main  fea 
tures,  was  waged  all  through  the  summer  until  elec 
tion  day,  when  Dudley  won  by  a  majority  of  four 
thousand.  The  Whig  politicians  took  this  as  an 
earnest  of  how  the  Presidential  campaign  would  ter 
minate;  the  Democrats,  especially  their  organ,  the 
Standard,  declared  that  the  vote  for  Dudley  was 
largely  dependent  on  personal  preference  and  local 
conditions.  ^  At  any  rate,  it  served  as  a  spur  to  Van 
"Buren's  friends.  Redoubled  energy  was  injected 
into  the  Democratic  fight;  Macon's  name  was  kept 
constantly  before  the  people  at  the  head  of  the  elec 
toral  ticket,  which  appeared  in  the  first  editorial  col 
umn  of  all  the  Administration  papers.  September 
22  the  Raleigh  Standard  appealed  to  the  public  to 
vote  for  Van  Buren  as  follows  :  "People  of  the  good 
old  North  State!  Friends  and  supporters  of  the 

i  Macon  to  Henry  Blount,  May  7,  1836. 


M AGON'S  LAST  YEARS.  395 

principles  of  Jefferson !  Inhabitants  of  the  land  of 
Macon,  the  well-tried,  the  wise,  the  honest,  the  con 
sistent  Republican,  vote  the  Van  Buren  ticket."  And 
two  weeks  later  the  same  paper  said,  "Even  now 
men  of  the  purest  patriotism,  such  as  NAT.  MACON 
and  his  political  associates,  are  reviled  by  this  sec 
tional  party  of  Judge  White."  A  favorite  appeal  of 
the  Whigs  for  public  support  was  the  fact  that  both 
White  and  Tyler  were  Southern  men,  and  this  ad 
vantage  was  used  with  great  effect  to  counteract  the 
influence  of  the  name  of  Macon. 

In  the  very  thickest  of  the  fight,  William  Henry 
Harrison  was  brought  forward  by  the  Whigs  of  the 
North  in  the  hope  of  carrying  the  election  of  Presi 
dent  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  that 
party  had  a  majority.  It  was  believed  in  North 
Carolina  that  Henry  Clay  was  the  author  of  this  pro 
ject.  The  Democrats  bent  every  energy  to  beat  their 
opponents  by  trying  to  show  that  Harrison  was  an 
abolitionist.  Letters  of  Harrison  and  Van  Buren, 
declaring  the  attitude  of  the  former  to  be  that  of  an 
uncompromising  opponent  of  slavery,  that  of  the 
latter  to  be  friendly  to  "the  dread  institution,"  were 
freely  circulated  in  the  State.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  this  appearance  of  a  third  ticket  and  the  accom 
panying  fear  of  another  contest  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  injured  the  cause  of  the  Whigs.  The 
Brown-Mangum  fight  helped  the  Democrats  because 
the  Whigs  suffered  Brown  to  be  reviled  as  a  man 
of  "common  manners,  a  man  of  the  lower  classes." 
Macon's  name  now  appears  in  every  Democratic  pa 
per  in  bold  capitals,  attracting  attention  the  moment 
the  eye  fell  upon  the  paper.  "If  you  would  chase  away 
the  poisonous  heresy  of  Nullification''  said  they,  "or 
avert  the  horrors  of  Disunion,  go  to  the  polls.  Repub 
licans,  and  vote  the  Democratic  ticket ;  if  you  would 


390  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

cling  to  the  Union,  if  you  would  cherish  your  liber 
ties,  and  if  you  love  your  country,  go  to  the  elec 
tion  and  vote  the  Van  Buren  Republican  ticket, 
headed  by  our  venerable  Father  in  Democracy,  the 
HON.  NAT.  MACON."  The  Tennessee  papers 
took  up  the  strain,  calling  attention  to  the  position 
of  "the  Father  of  Democracy.  When  such  a  man 
as  old  NAT.  MACON  supports  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
how  idle  is  it  for  the  mush-room  politicians  of  the 
present  day  to  charge  him  with  a  want  of  attachment 
to  Republican  principles.  We  mention  this  fact  be 
cause  every  man  now  of  age  knows  the  character  of 
Macon  for  devotion  to  the  Republican  party — and 
because  we  know  that  the  opinion  of  such  a  man 
must  weigh  with  the  Republicans  of  Tennessee."1 
Macon's  name  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  Demo 
cratic  party  throughout  the  South. 

Towards  the  end  of  October  came  the  news  that 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  State  election  held  October  n, 
had  given  a  large  majority  for  the  Democratic  cause. 
Calhoun  had  been  strong  there,  and  the  interests  of 
the  ever-growing  manufactures  in  that  section 
caused  the  Whigs  to  expect  the  vote  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  State  elections  there,  said  the  Democrats, 
pointed  to  Van  Buren's  success.2  The  Whigs  of 
North  Carolina  were  now  as  much  disheartened  as 
their  opponents  had  been  two  months  before.  There 
never  was  a  more  hotly  contested  campaign  con 
ducted  in  North  Carolina  than  this  first  great  battle 
of  the  Whigs  and  Democrats.  The  result,  tardily 
announced,  showed  a  majority  of  3,284  for  Van 
Buren.  It  was  not  until  November  30  that  both 
parties  accepted  the  count.  It  can  scarce  be  doubted 
that  Macon's  influence  turned  the  tide.  The  Stand- 

1  Tennessee  Democrat,  October,  1836. 

2  Raleigh  Standard,  October  20,  1836. 


M AGON'S  LAST  YEARS.  397 

ard  announced  the  vote  of  the  "old  thirteen  States" 
as  follows:  "North  Carolina,  Virginia,  Pennsylva 
nia,  New  York,  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire 
for  Martin  Van  Buren ;  the  other  six  went  for  Har 
rison,  Webster,  Old  Nick  &  Co."  It  was  a  curious 
breaking  up  of  the  old  political  boundaries.  Only 
two  Southern  States  gave  majorities  for  the  Demo 
crats,  the  others  voting  because  of  widely  varying 
reasons  for  the  Whigs.  Clay  had  gained  the  South ; 
Calhoun  had  as  yet  effected  nothing  in  his  great 
scheme  of  united  opposition ;  the  vote  of  South  Caro 
lina,  which  he  was  said  to  "carry  in  his  vest  pocket," 
was  given  to  Willie  P.  Mangum  for  President.  This 
fulfilled  the  prophecy  of  the  Democrats  that  the 
Whigs  of  North  Carolina  had  entered  into  a  corrupt 
bargain  with  the  great  Nullifier.  Mangum  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  as  did  also  his 
friend,  Benjamin  W.  Leigh,  of  Virginia,  both  rightly 
interpreting  the  election  a  condemnation  of  their 
refusing  to  vote  for  Benton's  famous  resolution. 

When  the  electoral  college  met  in  Raleigh^Decem- 
ber  7,  Macon  consented  to  an  interview,  the  first  and 
only  one  on  record  against  him.  It  runs  as  follows : 
"The  Hon.  Nathaniel  Macon,  president  of  the  col 
lege. — Mr.  Macon  appeared  at  a  loss  for  language  to 
express  his  patriotic  emotions  at  the  success  of  those 
pure  principles  of  Democracy  of  which  he  had  been 
the  devoted  champion  during  the  whole  period  of  his 
political  life — declares  it  is  his  opinion  that  the  elec 
tion  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  a  far  more  important  tri 
umph  to  Southern  Republicans  than  even  the  success 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1801.  Both  were  triumphs  of 
principle;  but  Mr.  Jefferson's  nativity  and  residence 
were  calculated  to  concentrate  the  whole  South  in 
his  favor,  while  State  pride,  Southern  feeling,  and 
every  local  consideration  were  arrayed  against  Mr. 


398  NATHANIEL   MACON. 

/Van  Buren  in  North  Carolina ;  and  that  the  Repub- 
\  licans  should  have  succeeded  in  this  embittered  con 
test,  with  such  odds  against  them,  was,"  as  Mr.  Ma- 
con  sincerely  believed,  "the  best  evidence  in  the 
world  of  the  indomitable  democracy  of  our  people/'1 
Casting  his  vote  in  and  presiding  over  this  electo 
ral  college  was  the  last  public  act  of  Macon's  life, 
and  his  ''interview"  the  last  message  of  his  to  the 
people  of  his  "beloved  Mother,"  North  Carolina. 
There  is  probably  no  student  of  American  history 
who  agrees  with  him  that  the  campaign  of  1836 
was  as  momentous  as  that  of  1800;  but  no  one  will 
dispute  with  him  the  ''indomitable  democracy  of  our 
people." 

Macon  retired  to  his  home  again,  where  he  died 
June  29,  1837.  Death  came  rather  suddenly  in  his 
seventy-ninth  year,  though  it  was  not  unexpected  to 
him.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  remarkably :  when  he 
felt  that  the  hour  was  drawing  near,  which  was 
early  on  the  morning  of  the  29th,  "he  shaved  him 
self,"  says  the  only  authority  we  have  on  the  subject 
(Edward  R.  Gotten),  "dressed  and  lay  down."  Then 
sending  for  the  physician,  he  inquired  what  his  bill 
was,  for  Macon  had  been  unwell  some  days,  and 
paid  it ;  the  undertaker  was  likewise  paid  for  his 
work.  About  twelve  o'clock  he  passed  away  with 
out  a  struggle.  He  had  provided  in  his  will,  accord 
ing  to  an  old  English  and  colonial  custom,  that  all 
who  attended  his  funeral  should  be  furnished  with 
"dinner  and  grog."  Fifteen  hundred  people  attend 
ed,  and  an  eye-witness  says,  "No  one,  white  or  black, 
went  away  hungry."  Macon's  remains  were  buried 
beside  those  of  his  write  and  son  on  a  barren  knoll  not 
far  from  the  house,  and  the  graves  were  covered,  ac 
cording  to  his  directions,  with  a  great  heap  of  flint 

i  Raleigh  Standard,  December  14,  1836. 


M AGON'S    LAST   YEARS.  399 

rock.  The  explanation  of  this  was  given  by  him 
self:  no  one  would  desire  to  use  these  stones  for 
building  purposes,  neither  would  any  one  consider  it 
worth  while  to  "remove  them  in  order  to  cultivate 
such  a  poor  piece  of  land."  He  gave  explicit  direc 
tions  that  no  other  monument  should  mark  his  grave 
and  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  according  to  their 
custom  with  most  of  their  other  leaders,  have  taken 
him  at  his  word.  The  heap  of  stones  remains  undis 
turbed;  broom-sedge  and  scrubby  post-oaks  sur 
round  the  place;  and  only  within  the  last  year  has 
the  spot  been  enclosed  by  any  sort  of  fencing. 

The  news  of  Macon's  death  spread  fast  over  the 
State,  and  the  public  prints  vied  with  each"  other  in 
paying  their  tributes  of  respect.  The  Raleigh  Regis 
ter,  the  paper  which  he  had  done  much  to 'establish, 
said  of  him :  "He  has  filled  a  large  space  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  State,  and  doubtless  some  one  compe 
tent  to  the  task  will  do  justice  to  his  memory  in  a 
biographical  sketch."  The  greatest  Democratic  pa 
per  in  the  country,  the  Hnquirer,  announced  his 
death  to  the  world  on  July  4  in  the  following  char 
acteristic  language :  "The  whole  nation  will  sin 
cerely  share  in  this  deep  regret.  Mr.  Macon  was 
one  of  those  patriots  who  fill  a  vast  space  in  the 
nation's  eye.  No  one  ever  more  completely  exempli 
fied  the  elevated  character  of  the  Roman  poet :  'Jus~ 
tarn  et  tenacem  propositi  virum.'  But  we  forbear. 
We  leave  it  to  abler  pens  to  do  justice  to  Nathaniel 
Macon."1 


Time  enough  has  elapsed  for  candid  students  to 
assign  to  Nathaniel  Macon  his  rightful  place  in  the 
history  of  North  Carolina  and  of  the  United  States. 

i  Despite  these  predictions,  no  one  rose  to  do  him  justice  :  and  North 
Carolina,  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  political  opponents,  knows 
very  little  of  this  most  typical,  il  not  greatest,  of  her  sons. 


400  NATHANIEL    MACON. 

From  a  militia  volunteer  in  the  Camden  campaign, 
he  rose  to  the  position  of  an  influential  political 
leader  of  the  Willie  Jones  school  in  North  Carolina, 
to  that  of  Speaker  of  the  National  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  leader  of  the  Madison  administration  in 
1810,  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  pres 
ident  of  the  North  Carolina  Constitutional  Conven 
tion  of  1835.  In  aH  of  these  stations  he  enjoyed 
the  satisfaction  of  having  distinguished  himself, 
and  above  all  of  knowing  that  his  State  and  the 
''South  Country"  approved  of  his  course.  In  fact, 
his  place  in  history  must  be  determined  by  his  rela 
tions  to  the  South  as  a  distinct  section  of  the  nation. 
He  believed  with  Jefferson,  and  more  especially 
"with  Jones,  that  the  State  was  the  centre  of  power 
/in  this  country,  and  that  next  to  the  State  the  South 
had  the  first  demands  on  his  service ;  he  was  among 
the  first  to  suggest  the  annexation  of  Florida,  and, 
with  John  Randolph,  he  first  laid  down  the  dictum, 
which  the  South  accepted  and  clung  to  until  1865, 
that  no  compromise  on  the  slave  question  should  be 
admitted  by  the  South.  In  fact,  Macon  must  be  re 
garded  as  Randolph's  counterpart  in  founding  the 
creed  of  the  secessionists;  he  was  a  stronger  and 
more  influential  man  than  "his  brilliant  but  flighty 
friend  of  Roanoke."  In  the  Senate  he  ranked  very 
high,  and  in  North  Carolina  he  was  the  idol  of  the 
people.  The  question  has  often  been  asked,  "Was 
he  a  statesman?"  He  was  a  Southern  statesman 
in  the  sectional  sense;  and  the  giving  of  his  name 
to  counties  and  towns  all  over  the  South  shows  that 
he  was  so  recognized.  That  is  all  that  this  very  im 
perfect,  yet  somewhat  painstaking,  study  of  his  life 
justifies  the  author  in  claiming  for  him.  As  such 
he  opposed  every  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  his 
section,  and  pleaded  to  the  last  moment  of  his  polit 
ical  life  for  the  simple,  straightforward  interpreta- 


MACON'S  LAST  YEARS.  401 

tion  of  the  National  Constitution.  His  life  was  a 
continued  protest  against  everything-  Henry  Clay 
advocated,  against  every  principle  the  realization  of 
which  brought  civil  war  and  frightful  bloodshed, 
against  every  extravagance  for  which  the  name  of 
the  National  government  has  since  become  synony 
mous.  He  was  no  great  man  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word,  but  no  taint  of  corruption  ever  touched 
his  garments,  and  he  served  his  constituents,  the  peo 
ple  of  North  Carolina,  more  faithfully  and  more  sat 
isfactorily  by  far  than  any  other  man  who  ever  rep 
resented  them.  He  actually  believed  in  democracy. 

FINIS. 


26 


APPENDIX. 


A. — DEBATE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 
ON  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  FEDERAL  JUDICIARY  ^ 
ACT,  FEBRUARY,  1802. 

In  February  when  the  debate  on  the  Judiciary  bill 
was  at  its  height,  Henderson,  of  the  Salisbury  dis 
trict,  delivered  the  ablest  speech  from  the  Federalist 
point  of  view  that  had  ever  been  offered  by  a  North 
Carolinian  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  He  outlined 
the  opinions  of  his  party  leaders  in  general  and 
especially  of  those  from  his  State — men  who  had 
gone  into  office  by  means  of  the  Federalist  victory 
of  1799.  The  General  Assembly  of  North  Carolina 
had  passed  resolutions  of  instruction  to  its  dele 
gates  in  Congress  calling  on  them  to  do  all  in  their 
power  to  have  the  Federal  Judiciary  act  of  the  last 
session  repealed.  It  was  indeed  the  custom  of  all 
the  states  at  that  time  to  vote  similar  resolutions  on 
most  important  questions.  It  has  already  been 
shown  that  North  Carolina's  first  representatives 
in  the  United  States  Senate  were  not  re-elected  at 
the  expiration  of  their  terms  because  they  ''refused 
to  be  instructed."  On  this  particular  occasion  the 
State  had  instructed  its  Senators  and  recommended 
to  its  Representatives  how  to  vote.1  Henderson 
announced  that  he  refused  to  be  instructed,  that  he 
did  not  pray  "thy  will,  not  mine  be  done"  to  the 
North  Carolina  Assembly.  Henderson's  position 
was  that  of  his  party,  his  arguments  were  along  the 
line  of  Bayard's  and  Griswold's.  His  closing  re 
marks  were  worthv  of  Fisher  Ames,  "if  the  doc- 

i  Annals  of  Congress,  ?th  Cong  ,  ist  Sess.,  523. 


APPENDIX.  403 

trine  contended  for  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side 
of  the  House  should  become  the  settled  construction 
of  the  Constitution,  and  enlightened  America  acqui 
esce  with  that  construction,  I  declare  for  myself, 
and  for  myself  alone,  I  would  not  heave  a  sigh,  nor 
shed  a  tear  over  its  total  dissolution.  The  wound 
you  are  about  to  give  it  will  be  mortal ;  it  may  lan 
guish  out  a  miserable  existence  for  a  few  years,  but 
it  will  surely  die.  It  will  neither  serve  to  protect  its 
friends  nor  defend  itself  from  the  omnipotent  ener 
gies  of  its  enemies.  Better  at  once  to  bury  it  with 
all  our  hopes."1  * 

John  Stanly,  of  New  Berne,  followed  his  leader 
in  a  speech  of  greater  length  but  less  declamation. 
His  position  with  reference  to  the  right  of  the  State 
to  instruct  delegates  in  Congress  was  the  same  as 
Henderson's.  Independence  of  the  Judiciary  was 
his  theme  and  his  closing  prediction  was :  "Should 
this  measure  pass,  it  will  be  the  first  link  in  that 
chain  of  measures  which  will  add  the  name  of 
America  to  the  melancholy  catalogue  of  fallen  Re 
publics."  The  Federalist  party  in  North  Carolina 
never  was  better  represented  than  at  this  time  nor 
more  numerously.  In  addition  to  Henderson  and 
Stanly,  William  B.  Grove,  of  Fayetteville,  and  Wil 
liam  H.  Hill,  of  Wilmington,  ardently  supported  its 
policy. 

Following  Stanly's  address  came  an  exciting  and 
impassioned  debate  between  Giles,  of  Virginia,  and 
Bayard,  of  Delaware,  in  which  the  latter  reviewed 
Jefferson's  appointments  claiming  that  Charles 
Pinckney  was  sent  as  minister  to  Madrid,  W.  C.  C. 
Claiborne  appointed  Governor  of  Mississippi  in 
reward  for  campaign  services  in  1800;  that  Linn, 
of  New  Jersey,  "the  man  who  secured  the  Presi- 

*  A.nnals  of  Congress,  7th  Cong.,  ist  Sess.,  530. 


404  APPENDIX. 

dent  the  vote  of  his  State,"  Lyon,  of  Vermont,  and 
Edward  Livingston,  of  New  York,  were  all  helped 
into  lucrative  offices  in  reward  for  faithful  party 
work.  Every  kind  of  corruption  and  political  trick 
ery  was  charged  against  the  President  and  most  of 
the  leaders  of  both  parties  made  set  speeches.  It 
was  at  this  point  that  Macon  made  the  longest  and 
most  characteristic  speech  of  his  congressional  ca 
reer. 

B. — MACON'S  SPEECH  ON  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  JUDI 
CIARY  ACT,  FEBRUARY  23,  iSc.2.1 

"MR.  SPEAKER: — I  should  not,  I  believe,  have 
spoken  on  this  question,  had  not  my  colleagues, 
who  differ  with  me  in  opinion,  throught  proper 
to  bring  into  view  a  vote  of  the  Legislature 
of  the  State,  instructing  her  Senators  and  recom 
mending  it  to  the  Representatives  to  use  their 
best  endeavors  to  obtain  a  repeal  of  the  last 
Judiciary  Act.  On  this  resolution  of  the  State 
1  ,egislaturc  they  made  some  extraordinary  remarks, 
which  I  mean  to  notice;  but  first  permit  me  to 
inform  the  Committee,  that  it  has  been  the  constant 
practice  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  general  government  to  the 
present  day,  to  instruct  her  Senators  and  to  recom 
mend  to  her  Representatives,  to  pursue  such  meas 
ures  on  all  the  great  national  questions  that  have 
occurred,  as  the  Legislature  judged  the  interest  of 
the  State  required,  and  this  proceeding  has  never 
been  considered  improper.  I  shall  endeavor  to 
answer  the  gentlemen  in  the  order  they  spoke, 
beginning  with  my  colleague,  (Henderson),  who 
was  first  on  the  floor.  If  I  understood  him  rightly, 

i  See  above,  pages  174,  175. 


APPENDIX.  405 

(and  if  I  do  not  he  will  correct  me,  because  it  is  not 
my  desire  to  mistake  a  single  word),  he  said  that  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  might  have  adopted  the  res 
olutions  in  consequence  of  the  message  of  the  Pres 
ident;  but,  upon  examination  of  the  dates,  this  will 
be  found  to  be  impossible.  The  message  could  not 
have  reached  the  Legislature  before  the  question  on 
the  resolutions  was  taken  and  decided ;  and  on  no 
important  questions  was  that  body  more  unanimous ; 
and  though  my  colleague  has  said  the  question  was 
there  viewed  but  on  one  side,  and  decided  in  a  man 
ner  ex  parte,  yet  I  will  be  bold  to  say,  if  there  were 
any  member  in  that  Legislature  who  thought  on  this 
subject  as  he  does,  he  enjoys  the  same  right  there 
that  my  colleague  does  here,  to  deliver  his  senti 
ments. 

"Knowing,  as  I  do,  the  great  talents  and  integrity 
of  my  colleague,  and  I  believe  no  one  on  this  floor 
knows  them  better,  I  was  surprised  when  he 
charged  others  with  being  under  the  influence  of 
passion,  when  his  conduct  must  convince  them  that 
he  was  guided  by  the  very  same  passion  which  he 
attributes  to  others.  He  quoted  the  Constitution  of 
North  Carolina;  let  us  examine  it  and  see  whether 
his  arguments  can  be  aided  by  the  practice  under  that 
instrument.  The  thirteenth  article  is  in  the  follow 
ing  words,  that  'the  General  Assembly  shall,  by 
joint  ballot  of  both  Houses,  appoint  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  law  and  equity,  judges  of  admir 
alty,  and  attorney-general,  who  shall  be  commis 
sioned  by  the  Governor,  and  hold  their  offices  during 
good  behavior/  On  this  clause  he  quoted  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  State  judiciary ;  and  they  are  inde 
pendent  so  long  as  the  law  creating  their  office  is  in 
force,  and  no  longer ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that 
in  this  section  no  mention  is  made  of  salary,  and  yet 


406  APPENDIX. 

the  judges  have  been  considered  as  independent  as 
the  judges  of  the  United  States.  Soon  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  established  courts  in  conformity  thereto;  first 
county  courts,  and  then  superior,  and  afterwards, 
by  a  legislative  act,  without  electing  a  single  new 
judge,  gave  the  superior  courts  the  additional  juris 
diction  of  a  court  of  equity,  and  never  a  solitary 
complaint  that  this  law  was  unconstitutional ;  and  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  that  if  you  can  make  the 
court  of  law  also  a  court  of  equity  by  legislative 
act,  you  can,  by  the  same  power,  take  away; 
and  what  becomes  in  this  case,  of  the  com 
mission  which  is  to  be  held  during  good 
behavior?  It  is,  according  to  my  construction,  to 
last  no  longer  than  the  law  which  created  the  office 
remains  in  force,  and  this  is  long  enough  to  make 
the  judges  independent.  As  to  the  salaries  of  the 
judges  of  North  Carolina,  the  twenty-first  section 
of  the  Constitution  says,  'they  shall  have  adequate 
salaries  during  their  continuance  in  office,'  and  yet 
with  this  clear  right  in  the  Legislature,  to  lessen  as 
well  as  to  add  to  their  salaries,  the  judges,  it  is 
agreed,  are  independent.  My  colleague  well  knows 
that  many  attempts  have  been  made  to  deprive  the 
Superior  Courts  of  exercising  any  jurisdiction  in 
cases  of  equity;  and  he  also  knows  that  attempts 
have  been  made  to  establish  a  court  of  appeals, 
which  should  revise  the  decisions  of  the  Superior 
Courts  now  in  being ;  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
State  any  Supreme  Court  may  on  presentment  of  a 
grand  jury,  try  the  Governor  for  maladministra 
tion,  etc.,  and  I  believe  the  present  courts  are 
authorized  to  do  this.  I  have  not  at  this  place  been 
able  to  see  the  act  which  gives  this  authority,  but  no 
doubt  is  entertained  of  the  fact. 


APPENDIX.  407 

"It  is  clear,  then,  that  in  North  Carolina,  all  par 
ties  have  thought  that  'during  good  behavior'  only 
meant  so  long  as  the  office  existed ;  because,  by  es 
tablishing  a  court  of  appeals  the  judges  now  in  bein^ 
would  not  be  supreme  judges,  and  in  all  these  vari 
ous  attempts  no  one  ever  charged  either  of  them  to 
be  unconstitutional.  On  examination  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  North  Carolina  it  will  be  found  that  it 
makes  provision  for  the  appointment  of  other  offi 
cer.*-  of  the  Legislature,  but  says  nothing  about  ade 
quate  compensation,  except  in  the  section  last  read, 
and  if  you  take  the  office  away,  what  is  an  adequate 
compensation  for  doing  nothing?  Another  proof 
might  be  drawn  from  the  Constitution  of  North 
Carolina,  in  favor  of  the  opinion  I  hold,  which  is 
taken  from  the  twenty-ninth  section,  that  'no  judge 
of  a  Supreme  Court  shall  have  a  seat  in  the  General 
Assembly,'  because  they  are  supreme.  And  he  also 
knows  that  no  one  ever  doubted  the  constitutional 
right  of  the  Legislature  to  establish  the  courts 
before  mentioned ;  and  it  seems  to  me  this,  on  his 
construction,  would  be  a  violation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  because,  having  once  made  a  Supreme  Court 
it  must  always  remain  so,  to  secure  what  he  calls 
the  independence  of  the  judges. 

"Sir,  I  was  astounded  when  my  colleague  said 
that  the  judges  should  hold  their  offices,  whether 
useful  or  not,  and  that  their  independence  was 
necessary,  as  he  emphatically  said,  to  Protect  the 
people  against  their  worst  enemies^  themselves; 
their  usefulness  is  the  only  true  test  of  their  neces 
sity,  and  if  there  is  no  use  for  them  they  ought  not 
to  be  continued.  I  will  ask  my  colleague  whether, 
since  the  year  1783,  he  has  heard  any  disorder  in 
the  State  we  represent,  or  whether  any  act  has  been 
done  there  which  can  warrant  or  justify  such  an 


408  APPENDIX. 

opinion,  that  'it  is  necessary  to  have  the  nidges  to 
protect  the  people  from  their  worst  enemies,  them 
selves.'  I  had  thought  we,  the  people,  formed  this 
government,  and  might  be  trusted  with  it.  My 
colleague  never  could  have  uttered  this  sentence  had 
he  not  been  governed  by  that  passion  which  he  sup 
poses  governs  others.  It  is  true  that  we  are  not  a 
rich  and  wealthy  State,  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
there  is  no  State  in  the  Union  more  attached  to 
order  and  law;  and  my  colleague  himself  would 
not  say  that  it  was  necessary  to  have  judges  for 
this  purpose  in  the  country  we  represent ;  the  people 
there  behave  decently  without  having  Federal 
judges  or  standing  armies  to  protect  them  against 
themselves.  Is  it  not  strange  that  the  people  should 
have  sense  enough  to  pay  their  taxes  without  being 
driven  to  it  by  superior  force,  and  not  have  sense 
to  take  care  of  themselves  without  this  new  Judici 
ary  ?  They  certainly  contrived  to  do  this  before  the 
act  establishing  this  Judiciary  passed. 

"Another  expression  of  his  equally  astonished 
me ;  he  said  that  on  the  7th  day  of  December  a  spirit 
which  had  spread  discord  and  destruction  in  other 
countries,  made  its  entry  into  this  House.  What! 
are  we  to  be  told,  because  at  the  last  election  the 
people  thought  proper  to  change  some  of  their  rep 
resentatives  and  put  out  some  of  those  who  had 
heretofore  been  in  power,  and  to  put  others  in  power 
of  different  opinions,  that  a  destroying  spirit  entered 
into  all  the  public  functionaries?  For  what,  sir, 
are  elections  held,  if  it  be  not  that  the  people  should 
change  their  representatives  when  they  do  not  like 
them  ?  And  are  we  to  be  told  from  the  house-tops 
that  the  only  use  of  elections  is  to  promote,  not  pub 
lic  good,  but  public  mischief  ?  We  are  also  told  that 
this  Constitution  was  to  be  destroved  bv  the  all-de- 


APPENDIX.  409 

vouring  energies  of  its  enemies.  Who  are  its  ene 
mies  ?  We  are  not,  nor  do  I  think  there  are  any  in 
this  House;  but  there  are  parties  as  well  in  this 
House  as  out  of  doors,  and  no  man  wishes  more  sin 
cerely  than  I  do  that  they  were  amalgamated,  that 
we  might  get  rid  of  all  party  gall,  and  free  ourselves 
from  improper  reflections  hereafter.  But  by  what 
energy  is  the  Constitution  to  be  destroyed?  The 
only  energy  heretofore  used,  and  which  made  the 
change  so  much  complained  of,  was  the  energy  of 
election.  Sir,  I  scarcely  know  what  to  say  when  I 
hear  such  uncommon  sentiments  uttered  from  a  head 
so  correct,  and  a  heart  so  pure ;  it  is  the  effect  of  a 
passion  of  which  he  is  unconscious.  Again  he  says 
if  you  repeal  the  law  the  rich  will  oppress  the  poor. 
Nothing  but  too  much  law  can  anywhere  put  in  the 
power  of  the  rich  to  oppress  the  poor.  Suppose 
you  had  no  law  at  all,  could  the  rich  oppress  the 
poor  ?  Could  they  get  six,  eight  or  ten  per  cent  for 
money  from  the  poor  without  law  ?  If  you  destroy 
all  law  and  government  can  the  few  oppress  the 
many  or  will  the  many  oppress  the  few?  But  the 
passing  of  the  bill  will  neither  put  it  in  the  power 
of  the  rich  to  oppress  the  poor,  nor  the  poor  to 
oppress  the  rich.  There  will  then  be  law  enough  in 
the  country  to  prevent  the  one  from  oppressing  the 
other.  But  while  the  elective  principle  remains 
free,  no  great  danger  of  lasting  oppression,  can  be 
really  apprehended;  as  long  as  this  continues  the 
people  will  know  who  to  trust. 

"He  has  also  brought  into  view  the  repeal  of 
internal  taxes,  and  the  naturalization  law,  and  these 
are  some  of  the  measures  which  this  destructive 
spirit  approves;  and  will  they  oppress  the  poor; 
will  the  repeal  of  taxes  oppress  the  poor,  or  will  it 
oppress  anybody?  If  it  will,  the  people  will  cry 


410  APPENDIX. 

out  with  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Ran 
dolph),  'give  us  more  oppression.'  You  can  not 
give  us  too  much  of  this  kind  of  oppression,  pro 
vided  you  pay  our  debts  and  protect  us  at  home 
and  abroad.  One  word  respecting  the  naturaliza 
tion  law — observe  the  danger  apprehended  by 
North  Carolina  on  this  head ;  the  fortieth  section  of 
her  Constitution  is  in  the  following  words,  'that 
every  foreigner  who  comes  to  settle  in  this  State, 
having  first  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  same, 
may  purchase,  or  by  other  just  mean's,  acquire, 
hold  and  transfer  land  or  other  real  estate,  and 
after  one  year's  residence  shall  be  deemed  a  free 
citizen.'  After  this  can  we  believe  the  people  of 
the  State  have  any  fear  of  the  few  aliens  that  may 
wish  to  settle  among  them? 

"It  is  asked,  will  you  abolish  the  mint,  that  splen 
did  attribute  of  sovereignty?  Yes,  sir;  I  would 
abolish  the  mint;  that  splendid  attribute  of  sover 
eignty,  because  it  is  only  a  splendid  attribute  of  sov 
ereignty,  and  nothing  else ;  it  is  one  of  those  splen  - 
did  establishments  which  takes  money  from  our 
pockets  without  being  of  any  use  to  "us.  In  the . 
State  that  we  represent  I  do  not  believe  there  are  as 
many  cents  in  circulation  as  there  are  counties. 
This  splendid  attribute  of  sovereignty  has  not  made 
money  more  plenty;  it  has  only  made  more  places 
for  spending  money. 

"My  colleague  next  said,  what  I  sincerely  wish 
he  had  not  said,  that  if  you  pass  the  bill,  he  would 
neither  shed  a  tear  nor  heave  a  sigh  over  the  Con 
stitution.  If  we  pass  the  bill,  and  the  people  should 
think  we  did  wrong  in  so  doing,  nay,  that  it  violates 
the  Constitution  in  their  opinion,  have  they  not  the 
power  to  bring  it  back  to  its  original  stamina,  by  a 
peaceable  corrective,  which  thev  can  exercise  everv 


APPENDIX.  411 

two  years  at  the  elections?  Suppose  this  done, 
would  not  the  Constitution  then  be  worth  some 
thing,  even  in  his  estimation?  Would  it  not  be 
better  to  cherish  this  expectation  than  to  destroy 
the  Constitution  and  put  everything  afloat?  Would 
not  this  be  much  better  than  confusion,  anarchy,  and 
the  sword  of  brother  drawn  against  brother?  As 
to  myself,  I  confide  in  the  people,  firmly  believing 
they  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  without 
the  aid  or  protection  of  any  set  of  men  paid  by  them 
to  defend  them  from  their  worst  enemies,  them 
selves. 

"Permit  me  here,  sir,  to  advert  to  the  resolutions 
of  North  Carolina.  (Macon  read  the  instructing 
resolutions.)  In  commenting  upon  these  resolu 
tions  my  colleague  certainly  used  very  complaisant 
language  towards  the  Legislature  of  that  State ; 
but  it  seemed  to  me  that  he  gave  them  a  back 
handed  compliment  when  he  said  they  passed  these 
resolutions  without  a  fair  hearing.  But,  sir,  is 
there  anything  indecent  in  them?  Have  they  ex 
pressed  a  sentiment  which  they  had  not  a  perfect 
right  to  express?  They  wish  the  law  repealed, 
because  they  believe  the  old  system  adequate. 
They  wish  the  law  repealed  because  it  pro 
duces  a  useless  expense.  This,  perhaps,  they 
more  sensibly  felt  from  being  in  the  habit 
of  conducting  their  public  affairs  with  the  great 
est  economy;  and,  finally,  they  wish  the  law 
repealed,  because  it  is  an  useless  extension  of  exec 
utive  patronage ;  and  they,  at  the  same  time,  declare 
that  they  have  due  confidence  in  the  Chief  Magis 
trate  of  the  Union.  Yet  they  do  not  wish  offices 
continued  merely  that  persons  may  be  appointed  to 
fill  them.  I  perfectly  agree  with  them  in  every  par 
ticular. 


412  APPENDIX. 

"We  have  heard  much  about  the  judges,  and  the 
necessity  of  their  independence.  I  will  state  one 
fact,  to  show  that  they  have  power  as  well  as  inde 
pendence.  Soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  Fed 
eral  courts  they  issued  a  writ — not  being  a  profes 
sional  man  I  shall  not  undertake  to  give  its  name — 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina,  directing 
a  case  then  pending  in  the  State  Court  to  be 
brought  into  the  Federal  Court.  The  State  judges 
refused  to  obey  the  summons,  and  laid  the  whole 
proceedings  before  the  Legislature,  who  opposed 
their  conduct,  and,  as  well  as  I  remember,  unani 
mously;  and  this  in  that  day  was  not  called  disor 
ganizing. 

"As  so  much  has  been  said  about  the  resolutions 
of  North  Carolina  I  will  repeat  again,  that  it  is  no 
uncommon  thing  for  the  Legislature  to  express 
their  opinion  on  great  National  subjects,  and  will 
ask  my  colleagues  whether  they  ever  heard  any  com 
plaint  of  the  resolutions  about  the  Western  land? 
And  whether  none  of  them  in  the  Legislature  ever 
voted  for  the  resolutions  about  the  Western  land, 
nor  about  postoffices  and  postroads?  The  Legis 
lature  surely  had  as  much  right  to  give  an  opinion 
as  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  New  York;  but, 
put  it  upon  what  footing  you  please,  it  is  entitled  to 
respect  as  the  uninfluenced  opinion  of  so  many 
respectable  individuals;  and  the  Legislature  never 
intended  nor  wished  that  the  recommendation  to 
the  representatives  should  be  binding  on  them  at 
all  events ;  and  if  I  believed  the  bill  to  be  unconsti 
tutional,  I  should  not  vote  for  it,  but  as  I  do  not,  I 
hope  the  gentleman  will  pardon  me  for  pursuing  my 
own  sentiments,  and  voting  for  it.  I  hope  no  man 
will  ascribe  to  me  a  disposition  to  produce  anarchy 
in  my  native  country.  Although  poor  myself  I  feei 


APPENDIX.  413 

as  strong  a  desire  as  any  one  on  this  floor  for  the 
preservation  of  good  order  and  good  government. 

"If  it  has  been  asked  by  the  gentleman  from  Dela 
ware  (Mr.  Bayard)  will  the  gentleman  from  Vir 
ginia  (Mr Giles)  say  the  assuming  of  the  State  debts 
was  improper?  I  have  no  hesitation  to  say  it  was 
done  at  an  improper  time;  and,  in  showing  that  it 
was  I  hope  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  traveling  over 
topics  that  really  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  merits 
of  the  present  question.  The  act  is  now  done,  and, 
by  what  I  say,  it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  I  wish 
Congress  should  put  their  hands  upon  it.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  Congress  is  authorized  to  establish 
postoffices  and  post  roads  for  the  general  and  equal 
dissemination  of  information  throughout  the 
United  States ;  and  it  is  not  known  that  no 
act  was  passed  on  that  subject  before  the  as 
sumption  -of  the  State  debts,  and  that  there 
was  only  one  post  road  which  runs  near  the 
sea  coast?  Of  course,  the  people  in  the  interior 
country  had  no  communication  with  those  in  the 
government,  nor  had  they  any  knowledge  of  what 
was  doing.  But  the  rich  speculator,  who  was  on 
the  spot,  by  going  into  the  country  where  the  peo 
ple  were  ignorant  of  what  had  been  done  purchased 
up  their  certificates — the  only  reward  they  had 
received  for  their  toil  and  wounds — at  about  one- 
tenth  of  their  value.  And  it  is  possible  that  many 
of  these  purchases  may  have  been  made  with  public 
money.1  And  it  is  clear  to  me  that  if  a  proper 
number  of  post  roads  had  been  established  before 
the  act  was  passed  for  assuming  the  State  debts  the 
war-worn  soldier  would  not  have  lost  half  as  much 
as  he  did  by  the  speculation  on  his  certificates. 

"The  gentleman   from   Delaware  says  we  drove 

1  See  Macon's  resolution  on  this  subject,  p,  65. 


414  APPENDIX. 

them  to  the  direct  tax.  This  is  the  first  time  I  ever 
heard  of  a  minority  driving  a  majority.  Is  such  a 
thing  possible  ?  Did  we  drive  them  to  the  measures 
that  made  such  immense  expenditures  of  the  public 
money  necessary?  No  sir;  we  opposed  those 
measures  as  useless;  and  the  true  ground  of  the 
direct  tax  is  this :  the  public  money  was  expended ; 
public  credit  was  stretched,  until  to  preserve  it  it 
became  necessary  to  provide  for  paying,  and  the 
means  adopted  were  the  direct  tax. 

"The  same  gentleman  tells  us  there  is  nothing 
sacred  in  the  eyes  of  infidels.  We  know  our  oppo 
nents.  The  allusion  here  is  too  olain  not  to  be 
understood;  and  evidently  is  that  those  who  differ 
with  him  in  opinion  are  infidels.  This  is  a  strong 
expression;  it  would  have  seemed  that  his  love  of 
Americans  ought  to  have  prevented  the  use  of  it.  I 
shall  make  no  answer  to  it,  except  to  remind  him 
that  in  a  book  the  truth  of  which  he  will  not  deny, 
he  will  find  these  words,  'Judge  not,  lest  ye  be 
judged.'  He  also  said  that  gentlemen  might  look 
to  the  Executive  for  victims  and  not  to  the  judges. 
Notwithstanding  this  remark  and  without  condemn 
ing  or  approving  the  appointments  made  by  the 
late  President,  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  to  express 
my  own  ideas,  without  being  considered  under  the 
influence  of  the  present  President.  Prior  to  the 
fourth  of  last  March,  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  offices  in 
the  gift  of  the  Executive  were  in  the  hands  of  men 
of  one  political  opinion.  On  that  day  the  people 
changed  the  President  because  they  did  not  like 
measures  that  had  been  pursued.  But,  to  those 
who  had  attended  to  the  debates  in  this  House  it 
must  appear  strange,  indeed,  to  hear  gentlemen  com 
plain  of  the  President  for  having  in  office  those  who 
agree  with  him  in  opinion,  when  we  were  form- 


APPENDIX.  415 

erly  told  that  the  President  would  do  wrong  if  he 
appointed  to  office  those  who  differed  from  him  in 
political  opinion;  and  whenever  he  had  done  it  he 
had  had  cause  to  repent  of  it.  Was  that  opinion 
then  correct,  and  now  false,  in  the  estimation  of 
gentlemen  ?  For  my  part,  I  did  not  think  the  opin 
ion  correct  when  I  first  heard  it,  nor  have  I  since 
been  convinced  of  its  propriety.  Indeed,  before  I 
can  think  so  I  must  have  a  worse  opinion  of  human 
nature  than  I  now  have,  and  think  of  men  as  they 
pretend  to  think  of  us,  which  God  forbid !  But, 
taking  things  as  they  are  what  course,  on  this  point, 
is  most  fair  and  tolerant  ?  The  community,  as  well 
as  this  House,  is  divided  into  two  parties.  It  seems 
to  me  that  all  the  most  tolerant  could  wish  would 
be  an  equal  division  of  the  offices  between  the  par/ 
ties  and  thus  you  might  fix  a  reciprocal  check  on 
each  other.  But  I  ask  gentlemen  to  be  candid,  and 
tell  me  whether  they  are  at  this  time  equally 
divided  ?  Sir,  they  know  that  there  are  many  more 
persons  who  now  fill  offices  who  agree  with  them  in 
opinion  than  agree  with  us.  As  to  myself,  I  care 
not  who  fill  offices,  provided  they  act  honestly  and 
faithfully  in  them.  I  can  with  truth  say  so  little 
party  attachment  have  I  on  this  head  that  I  never 
solicited  to  have  any  man  discharged  from  office. 
Knowing  that  a  large  majority  of  those  now  in 
office  agree  with  those  gentlemen  in  political  opin 
ion  I  am  at  a  loss  for  the  cause  of  all  this  clamor. 
They  have  no  doubt  some  reason  for  it  which  has 
not  been  declared.  The  fact  is  they  have  a  majority 
of  the  offices  and  a  majority  of  the  people  are  with 
us.  I  am  contented  it  should  be  so. 

"The  gentleman  has  dwelt  much  on  a  subject 
which,  from  my  habits  of  life,  I  am  not  enabled  fully 
to  notice;  I  must  decide  for  myself,  and,  judging 


416  APPENDIX. 

with  the  small  share  of  information  I  possess  I  can 
not  agree  with  him.  I  do  not  pretend  to  under 
stand  the  subject  as  well  as  he  does,  but  certainly 
he  was  not  so  perspicuous  as  might  have  been 
expected.  I  mean,  sir,  his  opinion  on  the  common 
law.  He  told  us  that  the  judges  only  adopted 
such  parts  of  the  common  law  of  England  as  suited 
the  people  and  that  he  apprehended  no  danger  from 
this.  Sir,  I  do  apprehend  danger  from  this,  because  I 
can  not  find  any  authority  given  them  in  the  Constitu 
tion  to  do  it,  and  I  suppose  it  is  not  an  inherent  right. 
Without  pretending  to  know  the  extent  of  this 
common  law,  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  to  be 
extremely  dangerous  to  the  right  of  the  people,  for 
any  person  not  elected  by  them  to  undertake  to 
exercise  the  power  of  legislating  for  them,  and  this 
adopting  the  common  law  is  only  another  name  for 
legislation.  He  also  told  us,  that  the  States  had 
adopted  it.  If  the  States  adopted  it,  it  became  a  law 
of  the  State  and  not  of  the  United  States;  but  the 
adoption  of  it  by  the  individual  States  could  not 
give  the  judges  a  right  to  adopt  it  for  the  United 
States.  The  judges  have  no  powers  but  what  are 
given  by  the  Constitution  or  by  statute  and  this 
power  can  not  be  found  in  either.  He  even  told  us 
that  the  Constitution  was  a  dead  letter  without  it. 
I  do  not  believe  this  was  the  opinion  of  the  Conven 
tion  that  formed  it  and  by  an  examination  of  the 
debates  of  the  State  conventions  that  ratified  it,  it 
will  not  be  found  to-  be  their  opinion ;  nor  is  it,  I 
believe,  the  opinion  of  all  the  judges  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  that  the  Constitution  would  be  a  dead 
letter  without  the  common  law  of  England.  I  have 
understood,  that  one  of  them  has  given  it  as  his 
opinion,  that  the  common  law  was  not  in  force  in 
the  United  States.  The  gentleman  told  us  that  the 


APPENDIX.  417 

Sedition  law  was  constitutional,  and  that  the  judges 
had  so  determined.  This  we  have  been  told  before ; 
but,  in  my  opinion,  the  contrary  is  the  fact.  I 
firmly  believe  there  is  no  authority  given  in  the 
Constitution  to  pass  that  law,  and  although  the 
judges  agree  with  him  in  opinion,  I  believe  the 
people  agree  with  me.  He,  like  my  colleague,  did 
not  pretend  to  say  that  the  judges  under  the  old 
system  had  too  much  business,  but  too  much  riding. 
The  whole  burden  of  the  song  seems  to  be  riding 
and  salary,  salary  and  riding;  you  may  destroy  the 
office,  but  the  officer  must  have  his  salary,  and  this, 
I  suppose,  without  riding.  The  old  system  was,  in 
my  opinion,  equal  to  every  object  of  justice  con 
templated  by  its  establishment. 

"The  gentleman  has  ascribed  to  us  the  wish  to 
have  the  courts  viciously  framed.  Is  it  possible, 
that  he  can  have  so  degrading  an  idea  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  as  to  suppose  they  would  send  men  here 
to  legislate  on  their  dearest  interests,  so  base  and 
corrupt,  as  to  wish  their  courts  so  formed  that  vice 
and  not  virute  should  prevail  in  them  ?  I  am  happy 
to  say  that  gentleman  is  the  only  one  who  has 
uttered  a  sentiment  so  abhorent  to  human  nature. 
He  also  said,  if  you  permit  the  State  courts  to  exe 
cute  your  laws,  you  would  have  no  Constitution  in 
ten  years.  I  have  not  heard  anyone  express  a  de 
sire  that  you  should  have  no  courts,  or  that  the 
State  courts  should  execute  your  laws ;  but  I  do  not 
believe,  that,  if  the  State  courts  were  to  execute 
your  laws,  that  they  would  destroy  the  Constitution 
which  they  are  sworn  to  support.  He  has  told  us 
that  we  paid  millions  for  an  army  which  might  be 
useless,  and  refused  thousands  to  a  judiciary  which 
was  useful.  As  to  the  army,  those  who  agree  with 
me  in  sentiment  are  as  clear  of  it  as  it  is  possible 
27 


418  APPENDIX. 

for  men  to  be  of  any  political  sin  whatever;  we 
always  considered  them  useless,  except  in  a  small 
degree  and  voted  against  them. 

"But,"  says  he,  ''this  is  the  President's  measure; 
he  may  prevent  it.  This  is  indeed  a  bad  assertion. 
Are  a  majority  of  this  House  so  degraded,  so  mean, 
so  destitute  of  honor  or  morality,  as  to  act  at  the 
nod  of  a  President?  What  the  majority  may  here 
after  do,  I  can  not  tell;  but  I  can  say,  as  yet  they 
have  done  nothing  which  even  the  eye  of  criticism 
.can  find  fault  with.  But  are  we  to  infer  from  these 
charges,  that  it  has  heretofore  been  the  practice  for 
the  President  to  give  the  tone  to  the  majority  of  the 
House,  and  to  wield  them  about  as  he  pleased?  I 
had  before  a  better  opinion  of  our  adversaries.  I 
had  thought,  and  still  think,  that  no  man  can  wield 
a  majority  of  this  House ;  that  the  House  is,  and  has 
been,  too  independent  for  this ;  to  think  otherwise, 
would  be  degrading  to  my  country.  Sir,  I  do  not 
believe  the  gentleman  from  Deleware  himself,  with 
all  his  talents,  can  wield  those  with  whom  he  votes, 
at  his  will  and  pleasure. 

"Much  has  been  said  about  the  manner  in  which 
the  late  law  was  passed  (the  Judiciary  Act  of  1801), 
and  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  done.  I  hope  I 
shall  be  pardoned  for  saying  nothing  on  this  sub 
ject;  enough,  if  not  too  much,  has  already  been  said 
on  it;  nor  can  I  conceive  that  it  has  anything  to  do 
with  the  question. 

"The  question  is,  were  there  courts  enough  under 
the  old  system  to  do  the  business  of  the  nation  ?  In 
my  opinion  there  were.  We  had  no  complaints  that 
suits  multiplied,  or  that  business  was  generally  de 
layed  ;  and  when  gentlemen  talk  about  Federal  courts 
to  do  the  business  of  the  people,  they  seem  to  forget 
that  there  are  State  courts,  and  that  the  State 


APPENDIX.  419 

courts  have  done,  and  will  continue  to  do,  almost  the 
whole  of  the  people's  business  in  every  part  of  the 
Union ;  that  but  very  few  suits  can  be  brought  into 
the  Federal  Courts,  compared  with  those  that  may 
be  brought  into  the  State  Courts.  They  will  be 
convinced  that  under  the  old  system  we  had  Federal 
judges  and  courts  enough;  besides,  sir,  I  believe 
each  State  knows  best  what  courts  they  need,  and  if 
they  have  not  enough,  they  have  the  power  and  can 
easily  make  more.  I  am  sure  the  old  system 
answered  every  purpose  for  the  State  I  live  in  as 
well  as  the  new. 

''Until  the  present  session,  the  people  have  not 
presented  a  single  petition  to  this  House  on  the  sub 
ject  of  courts,  and  now,  I  believe,  there  are  a  major 
ity  of  the  petitioners  in  favor  of  the  repeal ;  but 
their  not  having  heretofore  petitioned,  is  conclusive 
in  my  mind,  that  they  were  perfectly  satisfied  with 
the  old  system.  They  know  that  they  have  the 
right  to  petition,  and  we  know  that  they  have  exer 
cised  it  whenever  they  pleased,  and  if  they  wanted 
these  new  courts,  they  would  have  told  you  so  by 
petition. 

"The  gentleman  said  he  would  forgive  the  gen 
tleman  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Giles)  for  everything 
he  said,  except  disturbing  the  ashes  of  the  vener 
able  dead.  I  did  not  understand  the  gentleman 
from  Virginia  to  say  a  word  about  the  illustrious 
Washington.  It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  what' I 
think  of  him;  I  have  said  before  what  my  opinion 
was ;  I  sincerely  regret  that  ever  his  name  should  be 
mentioned  in  this  House  in  such  debates  as  these, 
respect  for  his  memory  ought  to  forbid  it. 

"He  also  told  us,  that  we  attempt  to  do  indirectly 
what  we  can  not  do  directly.  I  do  not  know  of  any 
such  attempts.  The  bill  is  certainly  a  direct  attempt 


420  APPENDIX. 

to  repeal  the  act  of  last  session;  but  I  have  seen 
things  done  indirectly  which  I  believe  could  not  have 
been  done  directly ;  such  was  the  army  of  volunteers ; 
it  surely  was  an  indirect  attempt  to  officer  and  get 
possession  of  the  militia.  The  same  gentleman  chal 
lenges  us  to  say  there  are  any  in  the  United  States 
who  prefer  monarchy.  In  answer  to  this  I  say,  there 
were  such  during  the  American  Revolutionary  War, 
and  I  have  not  heard  that  they  had  changed  their 
opinions;  but  as  he  has  told  us  there  are  jacobins  in 
the  country,  it  is  not  unfair  to  suppose  there  are  mon 
archists,  they  being  the  two  extremes.  We  are  also 
charged  with  a  design  to  destroy  the  whole  Judici 
ary.  If  there  is  such  a  design,  this  is  the  first  time 
I  ever  heard  it ;  no  attempt  of  the  kind  is  yet  made. 
But  what  is  the  fact?  We  only  propose  to  repeal 
the  act  of  the  last  session,  and  to  restore  the  Judici 
ary  exactly  to  what  it  was  for  twelve  years,  and 
this  is  called  destroying  the  Judiciary. 

"The  same  gentleman  told  us  that  under  the  new 
system  you  would  have  an  uniformity  of  decision 
in  each  circuit,  and  that  it  was  not  very  desirable 
to  have  it  uniform  in  every  circuit.  I  differ  with 
him;  I  think  uniformity  of  decision  desirable,  for 
this  reason,  that  a  person  knowing  a  decision  of  the 
Federal  court  on  any  given  point  in  any  part  of  the 
Union,  may  know  that  the  same  decision  would  pre 
vail  in  every  other  court  of  the  United  States ;  and 
unless  there  is  an  uniformity  of  decision,  you  may 
have  a  different  one  in  each  circuit ;  a  determination 
one  way  in  Delaware,  another  in  Maryland.  But, 
sir,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  courts,  you  must 
have  an  uniform  decision  in  either  system ;  because, 
if  different  courts  should  decide  differently,  appeals 
would  soon  be  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court,  where 
the  question  would  finally  be  settled. 


APPENDIX.  421 

"Another  curious  principle  was  advanced  by  the 
gentleman,  which  was  this,  that  the  judges  received 
their  pay  from  the  date  of  their  commissions.  If 
they  do,  I  am  confident  they  are  the  only  officers 
appointed  by  Government  that  do.  I  had  always 
before  understood,  that  the  pay  of  officers  did  not 
commence  until  they  accepted  their  appointments. 
On  this  idea  a  judge  might  have  pay  as  a  circuit 
judge,  while  he  was  holding  court  as  a  district 
judge,  because  he  might  be  a  district  judge,  and 
appointed  a  circuit  judge  without  his  knowledge; 
and  before  he  was  informed  of  his  new  appointment, 
might  hold  the  court  under  the  old,  and  the  gentle 
man  himself  would  not  pretend  to  say  that  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  court  in  such  case  would  be  illegal 
or  irregular.  The  salary  of  the  President  is  brought 
into  view.  I  have  never  heard  these  gentlemen 
before  complain  that  it  was  too  high ;  if  it  is,  I  am 
perfectly  willing  to  join  them,  and  diminish  it  to 
what  shall  be  deemed  only  an  adequate  compensa 
tion  for  services  actually  rendered,  for  the  next 
Presidential  term ;  sooner,  the  Constitution  will  not 
authorize  its  reduction. 

"To  complete  the  scene,  we  are  told  of  the  sword 
of  civil  discord,  and  of  the  sword  of  brother  drawn 
against  brother.  Why  such  declamation  ?  Why  do 
we  hear  of  such  things  on  this  floor?  It  is  for 
them  to  tell  who  use  the  expressions;  to  me  they 
are  too  horrid  to  think  of.  Do  gentlemen  appeal 
to  our  fears  rather  than  our  understandings?  Are 
we  never  to  be  clear  of  these  alarms?  They  have 
often  been  tried  without  producing  any  effect.  Every 
instrument  of  death  is  dragged  into  this  question; 
sword,  bayonet,  hatchet,  and  tomahawk;  and  then 
we  are  told  that  the  passing  this  bill  may  be  attended 
with  fatal  consequences  to  the  women  and  children. 


; 


422  APPENDIX. 

Can  it  be  possible,  sir,  that  the  gentleman  was  really 
serious  when  he  talked  about  an  injury  to  women 
and  children  ?  He  also  told  us,  if  you  pass  the  bill 
and  it  should  produce  a  civil  war,  not  only  himself 
but  many  enlightened  citizens  would  support  the 
judges.  And  have  we  already  come  to  this,  that 
enlightened  citizens  have  determined  on  their  side 
in  case  of  a  civil  war,  and  that  it  is  talked  of  in  this 
assembly  with  deliberation  and  coolness?  We  cer 
tainly  were  not  sent  here  to  talk  on  such  topics,  but 
to  take  care  of  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  pre 
vent  such  evils.  In  fact  it  is  our  duty  to  take  care 
of  the  nation,  and  not  destroy  it.  Compare  this  with 
the  conduct  of  the  former  minority.  I  challenge 
them  to  show  anything  like  it  in  all  their  proceed- 
ngs.  Whenever  we  supposed  the  Constitution  vio 
lated,  did  we  talk  of  civil  war?  No,  sir;  we  de 
pended  on  elections  as  the  main  corner  stone  of  our 
safety;  and  supposed,  whatever  injury  the  State 
machine  might  receive  from  a  violation  of  the  Con 
stitution,  that  at  the  next  election  the  people  would 
elect  those  who  would  repair  the  injury,  and  set  it 
right  again;  and  this  in  my  opinion  ought  to  be 
the  doctrine  of  us  all;  and  when  we  differ  about 
Constitutional  points,  and  the  question  shall  be  de 
cided  against  us,  we  ought  to  consider  it  a  tempo 
rary  evil,  remembering  that  the  people  possess  the 
means  of  rectifying  any  error  that  may  be  commit 
ted  by  us. 

"Is  the  idea  of  the  separation  of  these  States  so 
light  and  trifling  an  affair  as  to  be  uttered  with  calm- 
ness'in  this  assembly?  At  the  very  idea,  I  shudder, 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  every  man  ought  to  look  on 
such  a  scene  with  horror,  and  shrink  from  it  with 
dismay.  Yet  some  gentlemen  appear  to  be  prepared 
for  such  an  event,  and  have  determined  on  their 


APPENDIX.  423 

sides  in  case  it  should  happen.  For  my  part,  sir, 
I  deplore  such  an  event  too  much  to  make  up  my 
mind  on  it  until  it  shall  really  happen,  and  then 
it  must  be  done  with  great  hesitation  indeed.  To 
my  imagination  the  idea  of  disunion  conveys  the 
most  painful  sensation ;  how  much  more  painful  then 
would  be  the  reality !  Who  shall  fix  the  boundaries 
of  these  new  empires,  when  the  fatal  separation 
shall  take  place?  Is  it  to  be  done  with  those  cruel 
•engines  of  death  that  we  have  heard  of,  the  sword, 
the  bayonet,  and  the  more  savage  instruments  of 
tomahawk  and  hatchet?  And  is  the  arm  of  the 
brother  to  plunge  them  into  the  breast  of  brother, 
and  citizen  to  be  put  in  battle  array  against  citizen ; 
to  make  this  separation  which  would  ruin  this  whole 
country  ?  And  why  is  all  this  to  be  done  ?  Because 
we  can  not  all  think  alike  on  political  topics.  As 
well  might  it  be  said,  because  we  can  not  all  agree 
in  the  tenets  embraced  by  each  particular  sect  of  our 
holy  religion,  because  one  is  a  Calvinist  and  another 
a  Lutheran,  that  each  should  be  employed  in  plung 
ing  the  dagger  into  the  heart  of  the  other.  But  sup 
pose,  sir,  you  agree  to  divide  these  States,  where  is 
the  boundary  to  be  ?  Is  it  to  be  a  river,  or  a  line  of 
marked  trees  ?  Be  it  which  it  may,  both  sides  must 
be  fortified,  to  keep  the  one  from  intruding  on  the 
other ;  both  the  new  Governments  will  have  regular 
soldiers  to  guard  their  fortified  places,  and  the  peo 
ple  on  both  sides  must  be  oppressed  with  taxes  to 
support  these  fortifications  and  soldiers.  What 
would  become,  in  such  a  state  of  things,  of  the 
national  debt,  and  all  the  banks  in  the  United  States  ? 
If  we  do  wrong  by  adopting  measures  which  the 
public  good  does  not  require,  the  injury  can  not  be 
very  lasting;  because  at  the  next  election  the  people 
will  let  us  stav  at  home,  and  send  others  who  will 


424  -     APPENDIX. 

manage  their  common  concerns  more  to  their  satis 
faction.  And  if  we  feel  power  and  forget  right, 
it  is  proper  that  they  should  withdraw  their  confi 
dence  from  us ;  but  let  us  have  no  civil  war ;  instead 
of  the  arguments  of  bayonets,  etc.,  let  us  rely  on 
such  as  are  drawn  from  truth  and  reason. 

"Another  topic  has  been  introduced,  which  I  very 
much  regret :  it  is  the  naming  of  persons  who  have 
received  appointments  from  the  late  or  the  present 
President.  I  hope  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  not  fol 
lowing  their  example.  And  one  gentleman  is  named 
as  having  been  an  important  member  during  the 
election  of  President  by  the  late  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  It  ought  to  be  remembered  there  were 
others  as  important  as  the  gentleman  named.  In 
talking  about  the  late  or  the  present  President,  it 
ought  not  to  be  forgotten  that  they  both  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  that  they  both  have 
been  Ministers  in  Europe,  and  both  Presidents  of  the 
United  States.  Although  they  may  differ  in  politi 
cal  opinion,  as  many  of  us  do,  is  that  any  reason 
we  should  attempt  to  destroy  their  reputations  ?  Is 
American  character  worth  nothing,  that  we  should 
thus,  in  my  judgment  improperly,  attempt  to  de 
stroy  it  on  this  floor?  The  people  of  this  country 
will  remember  that  British  gold  could  not  corrupt 
nor  British  power  dismay  these  men.  I  have  dif 
fered  in  opinion  with  the  former  President,  but  no 
man  ever  heard  me  say,  that  he  was  either  corrupt 
or  dishonest ;  and  sooner  than  attempt  to  destroy  the 
fame  of  these  worthies,  to  whose  talents  and  exer 
tions  we  owe  our  independence,  I  would  cease  to  be 
an  American;  nor  will  I  undertake  to  say  that  all 
who  differ  from  me  in  opinion  are  disorganizers  or 
jacobins. 

"We  have  heard  much  about  the  document  No.  8, 


APPENDIX..  425 

sent  to  this  House  bv  the  President,  and  are  told 
that  it  is  not  correct.  Admit  everything  which  has 
been  said  about  it,  and  does  it  amount  to  anything 
like  the  least  invalidating  it?  No,  it  only  shows  a 
clerical  error  of  no  importance,  and  it  must  be  agreed 
to  be  sufficiently  correct  to  prove  the  inutility  of  the 
late  system.  The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina 
told  us,  that  many  learned  men  who  agreed  with  us 
generally  in  politics,  differed  with  us  on  the  present 
question.  This  I  never  heard  before;  but,  suppose 
the  fact  to  be  so,  it  unquestionably  proves  that  with 
us  each  man  makes  up  his  own  opinion  for  himself. 
He  told  us  of  one,  who  had  lately  held  a  high  office 
under  the  Federal  Government,  who  had,  when  in 
office,  made  a  report,  a  part  of  which  was  directly 
against  our  opinion,  and  that  he  was  high  in  the 
ranks  of  the  opposition.  The  opinion  of  that  gen 
tleman  formerly  given  is  nothing  more  than  this, 
that  he  at  that  time  thought  the  then  Judiciary  sys 
tem  might  be  amended.  From  the  rank  which  he 
assigned  to  the  author  of  the  report,  he  is  certainly 
much  better  acquainted  with  the  opposition  than  I 
am.  He  included,  among  those  who  differed  with 
us  on  the  question,  and  who  generally  agreed  with 
us,  all  the  judges  of  Virginia.  I  am  acquainted 
with  but  few  of  these  gentlemen,  and  do  not  know 
anythng  of  the  political  sentiments  of  those  with 
whom  I  am  not  acquainted ;  but  if  the  few  with 
whom  I  am  not  acquainted  differed  with  us  in 
opinion,  they  would  not  esteem  us  the  more  for 
relinquishing  an  opinion  before  we  were  convinced 
it  was  erroneous.  But,  sir,  judging  from  a  pam 
phlet  which  has  been  read  during  this  debate,  and 
said  to  contain  their  opinion,  it  is  clear  to  my  mind, 
that  we  perfectly  agree.  The  same  gentleman  read 
to  the  Committee  a  part  of  a  lecture  of  one  of  the 


426  APPENDIX. 

judges  of  Virginia,  which,  if  it  strengthened  his 
opinion  on  the  present  questions,  ought  to  convince 
him  that  the  Sedition  law  was  unconstitutional. 
And  what  will  he  say  to  the  opinion  of  the  same 
judge,  on  the  favorite  doctrine  that  the  common 
law  of  England  is  in  force  in  the  United  States? 
He  told  us,  by  passing  the  bill  we  shall  not  save  more 
than  the  small  sum  of  $5,000.  Here  he  and  my  col 
league  (Mr.  Stanly)  differ  a  little  in  opinion.  My 
colleague  thinks  the  saving  will  be  somewhere  about 
$40,000,  though  not  a  dust  in  the  balance.  Sir,  I 
would  vote  for  the  bill,  on  the  principle  of  economy, 
if  it  would  only  save  the  useless  expenditure  of 
$1,000  of  the  public  money.  Let  it  be  remembered 
that  the  public  money  in  all  countries  is  drawn  from 
the  sweat  of  the  people. 

"The  same  gentleman  told  us  that  we  ought 
to  keep  up  these  courts  to  convince  the  nations  of 
Europe  of  the  stability  of  our  Government,  to  look 
respectable  abroad.  Sir,  the  public  good  alone  shall 
be  the  principle  by  wrhich  I  will  govern  myself,  with 
out  considering  what  the  people  of  Europe  may 
think.  I  will  never  consent  to  keep  up  what  I  deem 
useless  and  expensive  establishments,  merely  be 
cause  it  may  make  us  look  respectable  abroad,  or  to 
convince  the  people  of  Europe  of  the  stability  of  our 
Government.  Nor  can  I  believe  the  passing  the  bill, 
which  is  altogether  an  internal  regulation,  can  affect 
our  national  character  in  Europe ;  it  is  one  of  those 
internal  regulations  that  the  governments  of  Europe 
care  nothing  about.  All  that  independent  nations 
require  of  each  other  is,  that  they  govern  themselves 
with  honesty  and  equity  toward  other  nations. 

"The  gentleman  asked  us  to  show  him  the  clauses 
in  the  Constitution  which  authorize  the  repeal  of  the 
Judiciary  act.  I  will  answer  this  question,  by  ask- 


APPENDIX.  427 

ing  another :  Can  he  show  any  clause  in  the  Consti 
tution  which  gives  express  and  direct  authority  to 
repeal  any  law  ?  He  can  not ;  there  is  no  such  clause. 
But  the  authority  given  to  pass  laws,  gives  also  the 
authority  to  repeal,  except  in  cases  named,  where 
you  are  expressly  forbid,  and  this  is  not  a  forbid 
den  case.  The  whole  authority  to  repeal  is  an 
implied  one;  you  may  establish  postoffices  and  post- 
roads,  you  may  establish  courts,  and  if  you  can 
repeal  the  one,  you  may  repeal  the  other. 

"The  gentleman  says,  if  you  pass  the  bill,  you 
make  the  Judiciary  dependent  on  a  faction.  Who 
is  the  faction,  sir,  the  majority  or  the  minority? 
Formerly,  I  have  heard  it  said  in  this  House,  the 
majority  was  the  nation,  and  the  minority  a  faction ; 
and  has  the  meaning  of  these  words  changed  ?  This 
the  gentleman  did  not  tell  us. 

"He  also  told  us,  there  were  but  two  ways  of 
governing;  one  by  the  Judiciary  and  the  other. by 
the  bayonet.  Sir,  we  are  so  daily  in  the  habit  of 
hearing  of  all  the  instruments  of  death,  that  a  stran 
ger  would  suppose  no  other  articles  were  manufact 
ured  or  used  in  the  United  States,  and  that  it  was  a 
standing  order  of  the  day  to  be  told  of  them ;  and  it 
is  a  little  extraordinary,  that  most  of  the  gentlemen 
who  have  spoken  on  the  other  side,  have  reminded 
us  of  them.  Power,  says  the  gentleman,  in  what 
ever  hands  it  may  fall,  will  be  abused.  I  hope  that 
he  is  mistaken,  and  that  time  will  convince  him  of 
his  error;  but  if  it  should  be  so,  no  one  in  the  coun 
try  will  hold  power  long,  because  there  is  a  peace 
able  corrective  in  the  nation,  the  application  of 
which  is  perfectly  well  understood,  and  is,  in  my 
opinion,  a  sovereign  antedote  to  prevent  this  abuse. 
I  mean  a  remedy  to  which  I  have  often  already  refer 
red  the  gentleman ;  it  is  an  answer  of  itself  to' almost 


428  APPENDIX. 

/everything  that  has  been   said — I   mean   elections. 

'  These  gentlemen   seem  to  depend  on  threats  and 

»  bayonets.     We  always  had  a  better  dependence ;  it 

was  elections  and  the  good  sense  of  the  people ;  and 

these,  it  seems  to  me,  are  what  every  true  republican 

ought  to  depend  on,  in  a  country  where  the  people 

would  as  soon  change  a  President  as  a  constable 

for  doing  wrong. 

"Do  gentlemen  expect  to  affright  us  by  the  con 
stant  cry  of  terror,  or  do  they  intend  to  prepare  the 
nation  for  civil  war,  and  all  the  evils  consequent  to 
such  a  state  of  things?  If  such  be  their  object,  let 
me  tell  them  they  will  find  themselves  mistaken  in 
both  respects;  they  will  not  deter  us  from  doing 
what  we  think  ought  to  be  done ;  and  if  all  Congress 
were  to  join,  they  could  not  produce  a  separation  of 
the  States ;  the  people  would  laugh  to  scorn  all  those 
who  should  wickedly  make  the  attempt ;  they  would 
say  to  them,  in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood, 
'We  gave  you  no  authority  to  divide  us  from  our 
brethren,  we  are  determined  never  to  fight  them, 
let  you  determine  what  you  may.  Instead  of  fight 
ing  our  neighbors,  we  will  hold  elections,  and  send 
more  faithful  men  to  fill  the  places  you  have  dis 
graced.' 

"It  is  rung  in  our  ears  from  all  quarters,  that  we 
shall  destroy  the  constitutional  divisions  of  the 
departments  by  passing  this  bill.  The  Legislative, 
the  Executive,  and  the  Judicial,  will  all  be  unhinged 
by  keeping  them  in  exactly  the  same  condition  they 
have  been  for  twelve  years;  and  to  add  to  all  the 
other  mighty  charges,  we  are  told,  that  we  are  about 
to  repeal  the  law  because  the  judges  do  not  agree 
with  us  in  political  opinion.  This  could  scarcely 
be  thought  to  have  much  weight,  if  the  gentleman 
will  reflect  that  six  judges  are  quite  enough  to  sound 


APPENDIX.  429 

the  tocsin,  whenever  there  shall  be  danger  that  the 
other  departments  are  about  to  invade  the  liberty  of 
the  people;  or  is  it  necessary  to  keep  up  these  new 
judges  to  prepare  the  people  for  this  terrible  work 
of  plunging  the  bayonet  into  the  breast  of  their 
nearest  kinsman  or  neighbor?  Whatever  may  be 
the  opinion  of  the  judges  lately  appointed  in  other 
States,  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  to  state,  that  the 
judge  appointed  in  North  Carolina  does  not  dis 
agree  with  us  in  politics  (Sitgreaves,  of  Halifax)  ; 
and  if  a  sincere  and  disinterested  friendship  for  a 
worthy  man,  whom  I  have  known  from  his  infancy, 
and  who  left  a  lucrative  practice,  when  he  took  a 
seat  on  the  bench,  could  influence  my  vote,  I  should 
certainly  vote  against  the  passage  of  the  bill.  But, 
sir,  shall  friendship,  shall  respect  for  a  worthy  man, 
induce  us  to  give  a  vote  which  we  know  to  be 
wrong?  Were  it  possible  we  should  not  only  de 
spise  ourselves,  but  every  man  of  worth  and  candor 
would  also  despise  us. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  it  was  my  intention  when  I  rose, 
to  have  examined  more  particularly  the  Constitu 
tional  ground  which  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side 
have  taken ;  but  as  I  most  cordially  agree  in  the  opin 
ion  delivered  on  this  subject,  by  a  very  respectable 
member  from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Bacon),  and  as 
I  also  agree  with  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  ( Mr. 
Giles),  it  would  be  needless  to  take  up  the  time  of 
the  Committee  in  repeating  arguments  which  have 
been  some  days  delivered  and  remain  yet  to  be 
answered. 

"I  beg  pardon  of  the  Committee  for  the  time  I 
have  occupied.  I  did  not  expect  to  have  detained 
them  so  long,  but  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and 
the  wide  field  into  which  it  has  been  branched  by 
those  who  preceded  me,  will  be  my  apology." 


NDEX. 


ABOLITIONISTS,  79. 

Academy,  Davidson,  58;  Gran- 
ville,  53;  Hillsboro,  53. 

Adams,  John,  68,  78,  86,  90,  91 ; 
President,  97,  107 ;  threatens 
France,  109;  mistake  of,  in 
North  Carolina  affairs,  130; 
and  Gerry,  131;  on  South  Amer 
ican  affairs,  131-133;  and  France 
139-142;  abuse  of,  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  156. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  minister 
to  Prussia,  107;  favors  Louis 
iana  purchase,  190;  his  opin 
ion  of  New  England  Federal 
ists,  278;  Secretary  of  State, 
306;  favors  annexation  of  Flor 
ida,  31 1  ;  candidate  for  the  pres 
idency,  337 ;  his  policy  as  to 
the  Panama  Congress,  351-352; 
desires  Macon  to  become  can 
didate  for  the  Vice-Presiden 
cy,  364. 

Adams,  Samuel,  157. 

Adet,  French  minister  to  the 
United  States,  81,  105. 

Alabama,  admitted  into  the 
Union,  317. 

Alexander,  Evan,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  223. 

Alliances,  strange  party,  in  the 
South  in  1832,384. 

Alien  and  Sedition  laws  passed, 
117 ;  petitions  for  repeal  of,  137- 
138 

Alston,  Willis.  M.  C.  from  North 
Carolina,  178;  defeats  Davie, 
181 ;  supports  policy  of  Presi 
dent  Jefferson  in  1807,  221 :  his 
ability,  222;  uncertain  politics 
of,  275. 

Amelia  Island,  anarchy  on,  311. 

Ames,  Kisher,  speech  of,  on  Jay 
treaty,  86. 

Anson,  county  of, 23. 

Anti-Federalists,  55. 

Arkansas,  territory  applies  for 
admission  into  the  Union,  815. 

Army,  Regular,  revolutionary, 
25. 

Army,  standing,  263  ;  increase 
of,  275-277. 


Ashe,  Samuel,  judge  of  North 
Carolina  superior  courts  im 
peached,  194. 

Ashe,  Colonel,  of  Wilmington 
militia  district,  178. 

Assumption  bill,  69. 

Aurora,  newspaper,  122,  123,  124. 

BANK,  National,  60.62;  re-char 
ter  of,  267-269,  293-295. 

Barbour,  James,  U.S.  Senator 
from  Virginia,  292;  Chairman 
Senate  committee  on  Foreign 
Relations,  308-309;  resolutions 
presented  by,  his  Navigation 
bill,  349. 

Barron,  Commodore,  James, 
and  the  "Chesapeake  affair," 
217. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  his  opinion 
of  British  policy,119;  Jeffer 
son's  election  in  1801,164;  the 
Judiciary  bill,  175  ;  on  Nation 
al  limitations,  176. 

Benbury,  Thomas,  of  North 
Carolina,  51. 

Benton,  Jesse,  of  North  Caroli 
na,  33. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  28,  33  ;  U.  S. 
Senator  from  Missouri,  342; 
member  of  Senate  committee 
to  propose  amendments  to  the 
Constitution,  358;  his  expung 
ing  resolution,  383. 

Betts,  William,  of  Wake  county, 
North  Carolina,  25. 

Bloodworth,  Thomas,  90. 

Bloodworth,  Timothy,  38,  39,  40, 
50,  51,  90. 

Blount,  Henry,  of  Nash  county, 
North  Carolina,  393. 

Blount,  Thomas,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  79, 100,  221,  222. 

Blount,  William,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  Tennessee,  convicted  of 
treason,  105. 

Bourne,  Benjamin,  M.  C.  from 
Rhode  Iiland,  59,  69. 

Boylan,  William,  editor  of  the 
Raltigh  Minerva,  158;  active 
partisan,  178. 

Branch,    John,    U.    S.    Senator 


432 


INDEX. 


from  North  Carolina.  342; 
member  of  Jackson's  cabinet, 
381. 

Breckenridge,  John,  leader  in 
Kentucky  politics,  157;  reso 
lution  of,  to  repeal  the  Federal 
Judiciary  Act  of  1801,  175. 

Brown,  Bedford,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  North  Carolina,  381 ;  can 
vasses  North  Carolina  against 
W.  P.  Mangum,  390;  Brown- 
Mangum  contest,  395. 

Bryan,  Nathan, M.C.from  North 
Carolina,  79. 

Buck  Spring,  home  of  Nathan 
iel  Macon,  45,89,  99,  370-373. 

Buford,  A.  S.,  Colonel  in  Revo 
lutionary  war,  23. 

B urges,  Dempsey,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  speech  of,  on 
Assumption  bill,  94. 

Burgoyne,  General  John,  sur 
render  of,  27. 

Burke,  Edmund,  58. 

Burnet,  staff  officer  to  General 
Nathaniel  Greene,  62. 

Burr, Aaron,  9,  10,  69;  active  in 
New  York  politics,  156;  Vice- 
President,  164-167;  out  of  the 
confidence  of  his  party,  192. 

Burril,  James,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  Rhode  Island,  315. 

Bute,  county  of,  2,  8,  10.  21;  Court 
House,  12. 

Butler,  of  South  Carolina,  colo 
nel  in  Revolutionary  war;  26. 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  C.,  M.  C.  from 
South  Carolina,  274  ;  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  334,  337; 
ally  of  Jackson,  Vice-Presi 
dency,  338;  change  of  policy, 
36L-362;  breaks  with  President 
Jackson,  380,  381 ;  his  position 
in  1832,  334 ;  awkward  role  of, 
in  1836,  390-391. 

Campbell,  G.  W.,  M.  C.  from 
Tennessee,  219;  U.  S.  Senator 
from  Tennessee,  292;  Chair 
man  Senate  committee  on 
Finance,  294;  Ibid,  309,  349. 

Campbelltown,  battle  of,  19,  23. 

Canada,  plan  for  the  annexation 
of,  286-287  ;  invasion  of,  283. 

Cape  Fear  river,  8,  26. 

Capital,  National,  proposal  to 
remove,  229. 

Carriage  tax,  72. 

Caswell,  Ru-hard,  militia  gene 
ral  in  the  Revolution,  24,  35,  40. 


Caswell,  William,  militia  gene 
ral  in  the  Revolution,  23,  26. 

Catawba  river,  21. 

Caucus,  Congressional,  dissatis 
faction  with,  281. 

Chase,  Samuel,  Supreme  Court 
Judge,  :n  the  South,  143,159; 
plan  for  impeachment  of,  186- 
187;  impeachment,  194-196 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  23 
24,  28,  61,  62. 

Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  24,  28. 

Cheves.  Langdon,  M.  C.  from 
South  (Carolina,  274;  favors 
war  of  1812,  277. 

Chowan,  county  of,  20,  23,  33. 

Civil  service,  Jefferson  makes 
changes  in,  197. 

Clay,  Henry,  52;  begins  his  ca 
reer  in  Kentucky,  157;  M.  C. 
from  Kentucky,  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives, 
274;  urges  war  with  England 
in  1812,277;  his  policy  of  in 
ternal  improvements,  297,  298 ; 
displeased  at  President  Mon 
roe's  policy,  306-307;  organizes 
opposition  to  Monroe,  307; 
favors  the  recognition  of  South 
American  republics,  31 1;  mem 
ber  of  American  Colonization 
Society,  314;  secures  the  final 
passage  of  the  Great  Compro 
mise,  325-326;  his  plans  for  the 
tariff  of  1824,  340-341 ;  revives 
his  internal  improvements 
policy,  343 ;  opens  i  he  fight  for 
the  3d  charter  of  the  National 
bank,  383. 

Clay,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from  Penn 
sylvania,  chairman  of  thecom- 
mittee  on  Ways  and  Means, 
209. 

Cleaveland,  Benjamin,  militia 
colonel  in  the  Revolution,  28. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  of  New  York, 
joins  the  Federalist,  281;  his 
important    service    to    New 
York,  297  ;  effect  of  the  build 
ing  of  the  Erie  canal,  343. 
Clinton,  George,  of  New  York, 
68,  69;  candidate  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency,  192. 
Clinton,  Henry,  British  general 

in  the  Revolution,  11. 
Commerce,  State  control  of,  39  ; 
commerce  vs.  agriculture,  101- 
102  ;  protection  of,  118. 
Confederacy,  Southern,  13,  55. 
Congress,  Continental,  15,  16,  34, 


INDEX. 


433 


39,  44,  47,  52,  56 ;  National,  early 
session  of,  in  1807,  219;  extra 
session,  May,  1809, 244. 

Congressmen,  life  of,  in  Wash 
ington,  302;  Southern,  oppose 
Mrs.  (General)  Greene's  claim, 
62,  63. 

Connecticut,  49 ;  land  patents  of, 
in  Pennsylvania,  156;  a  strong 
ly  Federalist  state,  157. 

Constitution,  National,  46,  50,  54, 
79;  amendments  to,  190-191, 
269,  299 

Convention,   Constitutional,    of 
North  Carolina,  387  ;  Philadel-   j 
phia,  44,  50. 

Cooper,  Doctor  Thomas,  117. 

Corn  wall  is,  Lord,  24-30,  36-37. 

Cotten,  Edward  k.,  5,  7,  8,  21.  28, 
31,  32,  41. 

Cotton-growing,  66. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  306  ;  begins  to 
plan  for  winning  the  Presi 
dency,  316;  his  health  fails,  338. 

Credit,  American,  48,  49 

Creek  Indian  controversy,  355-   | 
356. 

Crisis,  financial,  of  1820,  331, 

Cross  Creek,  battle  of,  23. 

Culpeper.  John,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  223. 

Cumberland,  county  of,  18,  23. 

DANA,  SAMUEL  W.,  M.  C.  from 
Connecticut^  115 ;  U.  S.  Sena 
tor,  292. 

Dandridge,  Martha,  1,2. 

Davidson,  William  L.,  militia 
general  in  the  Revolution,  26. 

Davie,  William  R.,  26,  28,  53; 
brigadier  general,  129;  Ameri 
can  envoy  to  France,  130,  141 ; 
Adams'  blunder  in  appoint 
ing,  160;  accepts  office  under 
President  Jefferson,  171 ;  Ma- 
con's  attempt  to  win  his  sup-  I 
port  for  Republican  party,  178, 
179;  candidate  for  Congress,181.  I 

Dayton,  Jonathan,speaker  of  the    ; 
House  of  Representatives,  78.     j 

Do  Armond,  legion  of,  in  Revo-   j 
lution,26. 

"  Debt,  British,"  due  by  the  citi-  I 
zens  of  the  States,  48;  of  the 
United  States  government,  48; 
funding  of  the  National  debt, 
64  ;  of  the  States  of  the  Union, 
93;  gradual  payment  of  the 
National  debt,  197. 

28 


Declaration  of  Independence,  58. 

D'Estaing,  23. 

Deficit,  National,  293. 

De  Grasse,  Count,  75. 

Democracy,  The  Western,  52. 

Democrats,  79-80;  oppose  Su 
preme  Court,  231 ;  oppose  Na 
tional  bank,  295, 

Diekson,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  162. 

Dissenters,  English  and  Scotch, 
numerous  in  the  South,  9. 

Duane,  William,  editor  of  the 
Aurora,  arrested,  143,  207. 

Dudley,  Edward  B,  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  394. 

Duvall,  M.  C.  from  Maryland,  73. 

EATON,  JOHN  H.,  of  Tennessee, 
canvasses  North  Carolina  for 
Jackson.  338. 

Edenton,  4,  9,  33,46;  memorial 
to  the  Legislature  from,  33. 

Edgecombe,  county  of,  2,  24,  25. 

Edinburg,  University  of,  8. 

Education,  public,  52-53. 

Edwards,  Weldon  N.,  7. 

Ellsworth,  Oliver,  141, 142. 

Embargo,  bill  for,  on  trade, 
passes  Congress,  224;  evasion 
of  embargo  laws  in  New  Eng 
land,  225  ;  repeal  of,  235,  240-241. 

England,  8;  overtures  from,  248. 

Enquirer,  Richmond,  Republi 
can  party  organ,  267;  opinion 
of  Macon,  292-293  ;  its  relations 
with  John  Randolph,  304; 
champions  State  rights,  316 ; 
fierce  opposition  to  Adams 
and  Clay,  361-362;  its  tribute 
to  Macon,  399. 

Eppes,  John  W.,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  261 ;  U.  S.  Senator,  292  ; 
on  important  committees,  349 

"  Era  of  Good  Feeling,"  The,  300. 

Erskine,  British  minister  to  the 
United  States,  243-244;  failure 
of  his  plans,  248. 

Essex  Junto,  219. 

Excise  law,  72. 

Expansion  of  the  slave  power, 
270-272. 

FASTING  AND  PRAYER,  day  of, 
ordered  by  the  Government, 
128 

Fayetteville,  19. 

Federalists,  55,  69,  71,  73,  77,  78,  83; 
views  of,  on  the  increase  of  the 
standing  army,  99;  hopeful 


434 


INDEX. 


mood  of,  104 ;  urge  war  with 
France,  109;  their  naturaliza 
tion  laws, 116;  their  contempt 
of  public  opinion,  126-127  ;  of 
North  Carolina,  130;  ridicule 
the  Republican  regime,  174; 
oppose  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase,  183;  they  lose  ground 
in  North  Carolina,  193  ;  regain 
influence,  218,  242  ;  attitude  of, 
on  war  of  1812,  277;  New  Eng 
land  Federalists  intrigue  with 
English  emissaries,  278 ;  fall 
of,  in  North  Carolina,  289, 

Federal  courts,  opposition  to, 
156;  federal  taxes,  159. 

Fithian,  Philip,  9. 

Florida,  acquired  by  the  United 
States,  312,  313 

Foreign  affairs,  the  complica 
tion  of  our,  in  1791  to  1800,  57-58. 

Forsyth,  staff  officer  to  General 
Greene,  62. 

F ranee,  in  alliance  with  Ameri 
can  Colonies,  15;  flag  of,  pre 
sented  to  Congress,  82-83  ;  hos 
tile  toward  the  United  States, 
104  ;  relations  of,  with  the  Uni 
ted  States,  138-142  ;  ignores  em 
bargo,  225 ;  her  trade  decrees 
annulled,  266. 

Franklin,  Jesse,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  North  Carolina,  130. 

Franklin,  Meshack.  M,  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  223;  staunch 
republicanism  of,  275. 

Frederick  the  Great,  14. 

Freneau,  Philip,  the  partisan 
editor,  59. 

GAILLIARD,  JOHN,  U.  S.  Sena 
tor  from  South  Carolina,  292. 

Gaines,  General  E.  P.,  sent  to 
Georgia  in  1824,  336. 

Gales,  Joseph,  founds  the  Ral 
eigh  Register,  157-158 ;  influen 
tial  leader,  178-179. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  90,  95;  coope 
rates  with  Macon,  97  ;  leader 
of  Republicans  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  111 ;  his 
opposition  to  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws,  116 ;  opposes  a 
direct  National  tax,  121 ;  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  173;  his 
relations  to  the  Macon  bills, 
250-251  ;  combination  in  Con 
gress  against,  256;  recom 
mends  a  protective  tariff  law, 
261 ;  attacked  by  the  Smith 


faction,  265-266 ;  favors  the  re- 
charter  of  the  National  bank, 
267,  293  ;  his  report  on  the  Gov 
ernment  finances,  277;  defends 
the  National  bank, 382. 

Garnett,  James  M.,  M.  C.  from 
Virginia,memberof  the  House 
committee  on  Ways  and 
Means,  209. 

Gaston,  William,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  275;  speech 
of,  against  the  war  of  1812,  285; 
discrimination  against,  in 
constitution  of  North  Caroli 
na,  389. 

Gates,  General  Horatio,  25,  27. 

Gazette,  United  States  National, 
59. 

George  III,  3. 

Georgia,  and  the  Yazoo  land 
frauds,  199 ;  and  the  Creek  In 
dian  controversy,  355. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  American  en 
voy  to  France,  122  ;  despatches 
of,  138-139;  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States,  281. 

Giles,  William  B.,  69,  70,  83,  90, 
93,  189  ;  U.  S.  Senator  from  Vir- 
ginia,249;  his  bill  before  Con 
gress,  249-252. 

Govan,  A.  R.,  M.  C.  from  South 
Carolina,  his  description  of 
Macon  at  Buck  Spring,  372. 

Government,  National,  39,40,54. 

Granville,  county  of,  17,  33. 

Greene,  General  Nathaniel,  29, 
36,  60-64. 

Greene,  Mrs.  Nathaniel,  claim 
of,  60-64. 

Griffith,  David,  16. 

Griswold,  Roger,  68;  fight  of, 
105;  resolution  of,  to  impeach 
Vice-President  Jefferson,  136- 
137. 

Grove,  W.  B.,  M.  C.  from  North 
Carolina;  68,  75,  76,  87  ;  an  ac 
tive  partisan,  178;  defeated,  181. 

Grundy,  Felix,  M.  C.  from  Ten 
nessee,  274. 

Guerard,  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  62. 

Guilford,  county  of,  17,  23. 

Guilford  Court  House,  20,36. 

HAGNER,  PETER,  second  audi 
tor  of  the  U.  S.  Treasury,  151. 

Halifax,  brigade,  26;  Congress, 
14,  20,  25  ;  town  of,  29,  32,  38. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  57,  58,  62 
64,  69.  70,  73  ;  his  intrigues,  104- 


INDKX. 


435 


his  South  American  scheme, 
131-133;  plan  to  divide  the  large 
Slates,  138-139;  desires  war 
with  France,  139-142;  plan  to 
win  vote  of  South  Carolina, 
163  ;  his  remodeling  the  United 
States  courts,  175 ;  opinion  of, 
on  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  183. 

Hamilton,  Paul,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  264. 

Harper,  Robert  Goodloe,  M.  C. 
from  South  Carolina,  and  the 
Alien  laws,  116-1J7;  his  reply 
to  Macon,  118-119 ;  on  Sedition, 
123. 

Harrington,  Colonel,  26. 

Harrison,  Carter  B.,  M.  G.  from 
Virginia,  122, 128. 

Harrison,  William  H.,  candi 
date  for  Presidency,  395. 

Hawkins,  Benjamin,  3,  4,  11,  22, 
35, 53;  U.  S.  Senator  from  North 
Carolina, ignores  Legislature's 
instructions,  68 ;  appointed  In 
dian  commissioner,  77  ;  his  re 
lations  to  President  Jefferson, 
141. 

Hawkins,  Joseph,  4,  8,  33. 

Hawkins,  Philemon,  2,  4,  10. 

Henderson,  Archibald,  M.  C. 
from  North  Carolina,  167,  179, 
181. 

Henry,  Patrick,  48,  49,  55,  141. 

Hill,  M.  C.  from  Maine,  324. 

Hill.  William,  181. 

Hillsboro,  15,  24,  25,  27,  33,  34,  55  ; 
Hillsboro  Convention,  The, 
20:  district  of,  56. 

Hogg,  Gavin,  372. 

Holden,  W.  W.,  editor  Raleigh 
Standard.  392. 

Holland,  14. 

Holmes,  M.  C.  from  Maine,  324. 

Hooper,  George,  a  Tory  refugee, 

Hooper,  William,  15,  16,  19,34; 
favors  mild  policy  toward  the 
Tories,  38,  39,  68,  70. 

Horsey,  U.  S.  Senator  from  Del 
aware,  315. 

Hubquarter  creek,  4,  41. 

Hudson  river,  14. 

Huger,  Daniel,  67. 

Hunter,  Banks  &  Co.,  61. 

Hunter,  U.  S.  Senator  from 
Rhode  Island,  315. 

INSTRUCTING  U.  8.  SENATORS, 

policy  of,  381. 
Internal  Improvements  in 


North  Carolina,  51,  52-54   286  • 
growth  of  the  idea  of,  295-297.    • 
"Invisibles,"    influence    of,    in 
Washington  and  Congress,247- 

Iredell,  James,  47,  80 ;  Judge  of 
tt^e  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  86, 

Iredell,  James,  Jr.,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  North  Carolina,  381. 

Iron,  mining  and  manufacture 
of,  95. 

Irving,  Washington,  28. 

JACKSON,  ANDREW,  vote  of,  on 
Washington's  farewell  ad 
dress,  91 ;  a  backwoods  soldier, 
287;  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency,  337 ;  Jackson-Clay  con 
test  over  the  National  bank, 
383 ;  long  letter  of,  to  Macon 
386. 

Jackson,  British  minister  in 
Washington,  248. 

James  river,  8. 

Jamea  II,  of  England;  18. 

Jay,  John,  58,  84,  163;  the  Jay 
treaty,  78,  83-87. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  4,  6,  9,  22,  39 
47,  57,  58,  69 ;  his  opinion  of  the 
National  excise  Jaw,  72 ;  of  the 
Jay  treaty,  84 ;  his  return  to 
politics,  89 ;  on  direct  taxation, 
96 ;  Vice-President,  104  ;  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency,  131 ; 
charged  with  treason,  134-135 ; 
his  opposition  to  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws,  138;  directs  cam 
paign  of  1800, 156, 157  ;  his  opin 
ion  of  North  Carolina  politics 
in  1800, 162 ;  Jefferson-Burr  con 
test  in  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  164-167;  his  inaugura 
tion,  167;  asks  Macon's  advice 
on  Federal  appointments,  169 ; 
policy  of,  in  Federal  appoint 
ments,  170;  his  first  annual 
message  to  Congress,  173  ;  eti 
quette  of,  while  President,  173; 
a  constructive  statesman,  177 ; 
popularity  of,  189  ;  his  control 
of  Congress,  189-190;  his  re 
forms,  190;  renominated  by 
Republican  caucus,  192 ;  his 
painful  indecision  on  foreign 
affairs,  193;  his  simplicity  of 
life,  as  President,  196;  his  re 
puted  atheism,  197 ;  appointr 
ments,  197;  does  not  interfere 
in  the  election  of  the  Speaker 


436 


INDEX. 


of  the  House,  201 ;  annoyed  at 
.  Macon's  behavior,  202;  the 
"Man  of  the  Mountain,"  205; 
regrets  "  family  quarrel,"  his 
overtures  to  Macon,  207 :  repu 
diates  the  "Quids,"  207-208; 
letter  to  Macon  (see  foot  note), 
216;  his  gunboat  scheme,  221- 
222;  recommends  an  embargo, 
224  ;  his  increase  of  the  stand 
ing  army,  226 ;  retires  from 
politics,  241 ;  his  interest  in 
politics  aroused  again,  327-328 ; 
financial  embarrassments,331- 
832. 

Johnson,  Richard  M. ,  candidate 
for  the  Vice- Presidency,  391. 

Johnston,  Charles,  33. 

Johnston,  county  of,  24. 

Johnston,  Samuel,  4,  14,  16,  19, 
20,21 ;  candidate  for  Governor 
ship,  34 ;  elected  Governor,  50; 
loses  seat  in  the  U.  S.  Senate, 
68;  disheartened,  77;  defeated 
for  the  U.  S.  Senate,  129. 

Jones,  Joseph,  373. 

Jones,  Willie,  leader  of  extreme 
republicans  in  North  Carolina, 
36;  his  relations  with  Macon, 
37,  38,  40;  a  member  of  the 
Hillsboro  Convention,  44,  45, 
51;  his  statecraft,  51-54;  his 
policy  on  public  education,  53; 
in  campaign  of  1796,  90;  last 
days  of,  170-171. 

Judiciary  bill,  debate  on,  174-175; 
Judiciary  act,  181 ;  see  appen 
dix,  402. 

KALBE,  BARON  VON,  24,  26. 

Kenan,  Thomas,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  223. 

Kentucky  resolutions,  138. 

King,  William  R.,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  275 ;  speech  on 
war  of  1812,  276-277;  removes 
to  Alabama,  canvasses  North 
Carolina  in  the  interest  of 
Jackson,  338 ;  change  of  politi 
cal  policy,  361. 

King,  Boras,  minister  to  Eng 
land,  132;  U.  S  Senator  from 
New  York,  292;  anti-slavery 
leader  in  the  Senate,  325,  349. 

Kings  Mountain,  battle  of,  29, 

LEIGH,  B.W.,  U.S.  Senator  from 
Virginia,  ally  of  Calhoun,  384  ; 
resigns  seat  in  the  Senate,  397. 


Leopard, war  vessel, engagement 
with  the  Chesapeake,  217. 

Lincoln,  Benjamin,  23,  24,  25. 

Livingston,  Brock  hoist,  and  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  183. 

Livingston,  Edward,  M.  C.  from 
New  York,  speech  of,  on  the 
Jay  treaty,  84 ;  charged  with 
treason  by  opponents,  123. 

Locke,  Matthew,  51,  79,  120. 

Logan,  Doctor  George,  his  mis 
sion  to  Paris,  131;  charged  with 
treason,  134-135;  letter  to  Con 
gress,  136-137. 

Louisiana  Purchase,  182;  ap 
proved  by  Congress.  189. 

Lowndes,  William,  M.  C.  from 
South  Carolina,  191 ;  candidate 
for  the  Speakershlp,  325. 

Lyon,  Matthew,  fight  with  Gris- 
wold  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  105;  attempt  to  ex 
pel  him,  106-107;  imprisoned 
under  the  Sedition  law,  143; 
M.  C.  from  Kentucky,  246. 

MACFARLAND,  DUNCAN,  223. 

Macon,  family,  The,  1  ;  Macon 
Manor,  2,  3. 

Macon,  Betsey,  daughter  of  Na 
thaniel  Macon,  45, 

Macon,  Gideon,  settles  in  North 
Carolina,  2,  3 ;  will  of,  4 ;  wife 
of,  3,  4,  7. 

Macon,  John,  4,  22,  24,  32,  50,  51, 
55;  leader  in  the  North  Caro 
lina  legislature,  90. 

Macon,  Nathaniel,  3,  5;  in  col 
lege,  7  :  studies  law,  11 ;  in  the 
army,  23-30  ;  in  battle  of  Cam- 
den,  24  ;  in  camp  on  the  Yad- 
kin,  28-29  ;  in  the  State  Senate, 
29-40;  a  member  of  important 
committees,  32, 33, 34;  his  broth 
ers  in  the  Assembly,  38;  mar 
ries  Miss  Plummer,  41 ;  builds 
a  home,  42-43:  his  slaves,  43; 
appointed  a  delegate  to  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation, 
44 ;  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the 
Warren  county  militia,  44;  his 
family  Bible,  44  :  death  of  his 
wife,  45;  his  attitude  towards 
the  Nationol  constitution, 55; 
enters  U.  S.  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  56 ;  on  apportion 
ment  of  members  of  Congress, 
59;  opposes  the  claim  of  Mrs. 
Greene,  60-64 ;  calls  for  investi 
gation  of  the  Treasury  depart- 


INDEX. 


437 


ment,  65;  serves  on  commit 
tees,  60 ;  attacks  Hamilton,  69- 
70;  on  excise  laws,  71-72;  a 
member  of  the  committee  on 
elections,  73-74  ;  opposes  a  pen 
sion  to  the  de  Grasse  family, 
75 ;  leader  of  the  North  Caro 
lina  delegation  in  Congress,79; 
makes  objection  to  form  of 
President's  address,  80-81 ;  ad 
vocate  of  the  French  alliance, 
83 ;  the  Jay  treaty,  87  ;  letter  to 
Ashe  on  Jay  treaty,  88 ;  favors 
admission  of  Tennessee,  88; 
against  increasing  salaries  of 
Representatives,  88,  97;  always 
at  his  post,  89;  a  "field  hand," 
90;  Kepublican  plans  for  North 
Carolina,  in  1796,  90:  disap 
proves  Washington's  address, 
December,  1796,  91-92;  opposes 
a  National  university,  92-93; 
speech  against  payment  of 
North  Carolina's  debt  to  the 
Union,  94  ;  opposes  protection 
to  iron  industry,  95;  on  peti 
tions  from  slaves,  96;  opposi 
tion  to  appropriations,  98  ;  op 
poses  increase  of  the  navy,  100; 
the  Federalist  supremacy,  104; 
interest  in  the  Lyon  affair,  106; 
first  long  speech,  108  ;  his  ideas 
of  proper  civil  service  appoint 
ments,  108, 169  ;  repels  charges, 
110-111 ;  Macon  and  Gallalin, 
111,  116  ;  on  referring  petitions, 
115;  "Protection  of  Trade,"  118; 
disconcerts  party  plans,  120; 
letter  to  Bigelow,  120;  on  di 
rect  taxes,  121;  the  Sedition 
bill,  123-126;  on  newspapers, 
124;  nature  of  Federal  govern 
ment,  126;  Alien  and  Sedition 
laws,  133-134;  his  first  defense 
of  Jefferson,  135-136,  French 
relations,  public  opinion,  140; 
candidate  for  Speakership, 
meets  Randolph,  144 ;  speech 
on  retrenchment,  147-148;  at 
the  theatre  with  Randolph, 
149;  friendship  for  Randolph, 
150,174,214-215,  228;  his  resolu 
tion  to  repeal  Sedition  law, 
150,  154;  chairman  committee 
on  claims,  151 ;  mausoleum  to 
Washington,  152 ;  his  devotion 
to  precedent,  154;  Joseph  Gales, 
158,  162 ;  controls  Federal  pat 
ronage,  160,  169-170  ;  letter  on 
Jefferson-Burr  contest,  167;  let 


ters  to  Jefferson,  168,  177,  182; 
on  status  of  the  Tories,  state  of 
North  Carolina  politics,  at- 


rights,  176,  192;  John  Steele, 
179-180;  Davie-Alston,  contest, 
181;  his  prominence  in  North 
Carolina,  182  ;  impeachment  of 
Judge  Chase,  187-188  ;  favors 
Louisiana  Purchase,  wants 
Florida  on  similar  terms,  188- 
189  ;  Speakership,  190  ;  »  uiend- 
ment  to  the  Constitution,  190- 
195 ;  attends  Congressional 
caucus,  193  ;  perplexed  at  Eng 
land's  policy,  193  ;  his  dislike 
of  ''society,"  195;  displeased 
with  Jefferson's  administra 
tion,  197 ;  belongs  to  the  "Bap 
tist  persuasion,"  197;  relation 
to  the  "Quids,"  to  Monroe, 
198;  the  Yazoo  land  frauds, 
199;  uneasiness  of  friendsanout 
his  re-election  to  Speakership 
in  1805,  200  ;  puts  Randolph  at 
head  of  committee  on  Ways 
and  Means,  distressed  about 
foreign  affairs.  202,  203 ;  plans 
to  defeat  Madison's  candidacy, 
203;  favors  Gallatin  for  t resi 
dent,  206,  215,  233;  gives  up 
Randolph,  209;  speech  on  Non 
importation,  210;  fights  New 
England,  211-212;  on  restric 
tion  of  the  slave  trade,  212-214; 
his  leadership  in  North  Caro 
lina,  offered  seat  in  the  Cabi 
net,  216;  Chesapeake  -'affair," 
217,  220;  Late  return  to  Con 
gress  in  1807, 219-220 ;  favors  the 
embargo,  225;  opposes  increase 
of  regular  army.  226;  incon 
sistent,  228 1  dislike  of  cities, 
229-230;  hatred  of  "wire-pull 
ing,"  231-232;  suggests  repeal 
of  embargo, 233;  the  Macon 
resolutions,  235-236,  238;  big 
plan  fai  Is,  240 ;  a  national  char 
acter,  242-273 ;  again  candidate 
for  the  Speakership,  242-243  ; 
would  investigate  the  finances 
of  Jefferson's  administration, 
245;  opposes  protection,  247; 
Macon  bill  No.  1,  he  drafts 
"House  rules,"  249-255;  chair 
man  of  the  committee  on  For 
eign  relations,  251,  280;  speech 
on  bill  No.  1,  253-255;  his  bill 


438 


INDEX. 


vitiated  by  amendment,depre- 
cates  move  of  Randolph,  256- 
258  ;  bill  No.  2,  258-260  ;  tariff, 
army,  navy,  261-263  ;  times  all 
"out  of  joint,"  264-265;  letter 
on  National  bank,  268;  propo 
ses  amendment  to  Constitu 
tion,  269 ;  expansion  of  the 
South,  270-272 ;  Monroe.  Secre 
tary  of  State,  273 ;  supports 
Madison's  administration,  275; 
at  disadvantage  in  debate,  277; 
rebukes  Federalists,  279  ;  votes 
for  war  with  England,  279; 
chairman  of  committee  to  in 
vestigate  conduct  of  the  war, 
284 :  his  report,  284-285  ;  Judge 
Gaston,  285;  on  disbanding 
army,  his  political  faith, 288; 
his  standing  in  North  Caro 
lina,  289;  elected  to  the  U.  S. 
Senate,  290;  letter  to  Nichol 
son,  290 ;  opposes  the  bank  in 
1816,  294;  his  love  for  the 
"South  country,"  296;  opposi 
tion  to  Clay,  298;  satirizes 
society  in  Washington,  300-301; 
his  manner  of  living,  302;  his 
standing  in  1815,  305-306 ;  on 
Senate  committees  on  Foreign 
relations,  on  Finance,  309 ; 
Constitutional  amendments, 
internal  improvements  un 
constitutional,  310;  opposes 
recognition  of  South  Ameri 
can  republics,  311;  Florida 
purchase,  distrusts  Andrew 
Jackson,  312;  foresees  the 
slavery  controversy  of  1820X 
313-514  ;  leader  of  "Old  Repub 
licans,"  316 ;  speeches  of,  on 
Missouri  question,  317-318,  319- 
320  ;  votes  against  the  compro- 
mise,second compromise,  final 
vote,  323-326 ;  co-founder  of  the 
school  of  secession,  326;  re 
newal  of  cordial  relations  with 
Jefferson,  327-328;  bitter  feel 
ing  towards  the  North,  329-330; 
supports  Crawford,  333;  ad 
vises  the  South  to  vote  "solid," 
334  ;  distrusts  Calhoun,  334-335; 
declined  to  attend  Republican 
caucus,  335-337 ;  his  influence 
in  politics,  336 ;  intimate  friend 
of  Crawford,  338 ;  his  opposi 
tion  to  Jackson,  339;  indiffer 
ent  as  to  the  outcome  of  the 
Adams-Jackson  contest  in  the 
House,  340;  last  stand  against 


the  "American  System,"  345; 
speech  of,  346 :  review  of  his 
politics,  347-348 ;  chairman 
Senate  committee  on  Foreign 
relations,  349 ;  report  of,  on 
American  commerce,  Presi 
dent  pro  tern,  of  the  Seriate, 
350,  365  ;  speech  of,  against  the 
Panama  Congress,  351 ;  report 
of,  on  Panama  mission,  352- 
353;  the  claims  of  Georgia 
against  the  Creek  Indians,  357: 
member  of  the  Senate  com 
mittee  to  report  amendments 
to  the  Constitution,  favors 
present  system  of  electing  the 
President,  358;  his  plan  for 
improving  the  civil  service, 
859 ;  venerated  in  Virginia  and 
Georgia,  362 ;  receives  vote  of 
Virginia  for  the  Vice-Presi 
dency,  363;  Adams  proposes 
him  for  Vice-President,  364- 
365;  changes  his  opinion  of 
Jackson,  366;  advice  to  the 
South,  367 ;  his  resignation, 
368 ;  letter  to  the  General  As 
sembly,  368-369 ;  last  years,  370- 
401 ;  at  Buck  Spring,  370 ;  value 
of  his  estate,  370-371 ;  life  at 
Buck  Spring,  371-372  ;  relations 
with  his  neighbors,  373  ;  advice 
to  young  men,  374-376;  treat 
ment  of  slaves,  the  civil  status 
of.the  negro,  376-377;  his  Church 
relations,  377 ;  study  of  the 
Bible,  375-377 ;  naming  of  Ran- 
dolph-Macon  College,  377-379 ; 
urges  Bedford  Brown  to  "stand 
up"  against  Clay,  382,  letter 
to  Gallatin,  382;  proposes  a 
public  attack  on  the  National 
bank,  382-383;  an  ardent  "Jack 
son  man,"  384;  nullification, 
385;  criticise  Jackson,  385;  re 
monstrates  with  Jackson,  386; 
President  of  North  Carolina 
Constitutional  convention,387; 
his  political  creed restated,388- 
389;  disapproves  work  of  the 
Convention,  389;  short  farewell 
address,  390 ;  becomes  a  Van 
Buren  elector,  394  ;  his  influ 
ence  in  campaign  of  1836,396; 
a  published  interview  of, 397- 
398 ;  last  illness  and  death,  398; 
tributes  from  the  press,  399;  his 
place  in  American  history,  400. 
Macon,  Priscilla,  wife  of  Gideon 
Macon,  3,  4,  7. 


INDEX. 


439 


Macon,  Seignora,  daughter  of 
Nathaniel  Macon,  45. 

Madison,  James,  8,  58,  69,  70,  75  ; 
urges  Jefferson  to  become  can 
didate  for  Presidency,  89 ;  fa 
vors  National  university,  92-93; 
resigns  seat  in  Congress,  "man 
ages  "  Virginia,  157 ;  his  vie\\ 
of  North  Carolina  politics,  162; 
Secretary  of  State,  183,  198 ; 
connection  with  the  Yazoo 
land  frauds,  199 ;  President  of 
the  United  States,  discord  in 
his  cabinet,  243;  duped  by 
Canning,  243;  re-forms  cabinet, 
273;  sends  the  Henry  papers 
to  Congress,  278 ;  re-election  of, 
281-282  ;  poor  executive  officer, 
283 ;  his  interest  in  American 
Colonization  Society,  314. 

Maine,  separated  from  Massa 
chusetts,  317;  admitted  into 
the  Union,  323-324. 

Mangum,  Willie  P.,  U.  S.  Sen- 
tor  from  North  Carolina,  381 ; 
leader  in  the  fight  for  National 
bank,  383;  his  alliance  with 
Calhoun,  384;  refuses  to  be 
"instructed,"  390;  receives 
vote  of  South  Carolina  for  the 
Presidency,  397 ;  resigns  seat 
in  the  Senate,  397. 

Marbury,  183. 

Mark,  Jacob,  95 

Martin,  Alexander,  8,40,  .53,68; 
U.  S.  Senator  from  North  Car 
olina,  129,  130,  143. 

Martin,  Josiah,  royal  governor 
of  North  Carolina  in  1776,  14,18. 
.Marshall,  John, 9;  deplores  the 
trend  of  North  Carolina  poli 
tics,  91;  his  Marbury  v.Madi- 
eon  decision,  183-186;  decision 
of,  in  Martin  v.  Hunter,  lessee, 
308. 

Maryland,  49;  protests  against 
war  of  1812,  283;  becomes  a 
slave  exporting  state,  314. 

Massachusetts,  declines  to  grant 
land  to  the  Union,  99;  Fede 
ralist  control  of,  163 ;  opposes 
Non-importation,  218-219;  pro 
test  of,  2aS;  compared  with 
Virginia,  287. 

McBryde,  Archibald,  M.  C.from 
North  Carolina,  242-275 

McDowell,  Colonel  Joseph,  28; 
M.  C  from  North  Carolina,180. 

Mclntosh,  leader  of  Creek  In 
dians,  356. 


McKean,  Governor  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  156. 

McLaine,  Alexander,  38,  49,  68. 

Mecklenburg,  county  of,  21. 

Mercer,  M.  C.  from  Maryland,73. 

Mercer,  Hugh,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  a  "Quid,"  207. 

Mifilin,  of  Pennsylvania,  156. 

Militia  of  New  Jersey,  11 ;  of 
Connecticut^  13;  militia  bill 
in  Congress,  71;  bill  for  amend 
ing,  220. 

Miranda,  John,  South  Ameri 
can  revolutionist,  132-133;  his 
plans  fail,  141-142. 

Missouri  compromise,  315:  ter 
ritorial  convention  of,  324-325. 

"Mobocrats,"  70,  80. 

Monroe,  James,  8,  9,  89 ;  in  dis 
grace.  104;  candidate  for  gov 
ernorship  of  Virginia,  157  ;  his 
share  in  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase,  182-183  ;  in  London,  198  ; 
Secretary  of  State,  273  ;  oppo 
ses  Clay's  internal  improve 
ments  policy,  299;  a  JefTerso- 
nian,  299-300;  etiquette  at  the 
White  House,  300  ;  his  cabinet, 
306;  first  annual  message,  307- 
308  ;  interest  in  American  Col 
onization  Society,  314 ;  re-elec 
tion  of,  333. 

Moore,  county  of,  23. 

Moore,  Colonel  John,  23  ;M.  C. 
from  North  Carolina,  179. 

Moore,  J,  W..  the  historian,  28,31, 

Moore's  Creek  Bridge,  battle  of, 
18,  19. 

Morris,  Robert,  in  jail,  105. 

Muhlenburg,  Speaker  of  the  Na 
tional  House  of  Representa 
tives,  59. 

Mumford,  George,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  308. 

Murfree,  William  H,  M.  C.from 
North  Carolina,  plan  for  in 
ternal  improvements,  286. 

Mutiny  of  Halifax  (North  Caro 
lina)  regiment,  25. 

NAPOLEON,  attempt  of,  to  lead 

the   United   States   into    war 

with  England,  248. 
Nash,  Abner,  Governor  of  North 

Carolina,    34;   message    of,   to 

the  Legislature,  35-36. 
Nash,  county  of,  24-25. 
Nationalists,  suggest  union  of 

the  States,  47,  49,  57. 
National  Intelligencer,  205,  366. 


440 


INDEX. 


New  Bern,  31,  32,  46. 

New  England,  opposes  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  resolutions,  138; 
dangerous  opposition  of,  234  ; 
publicly  receives  Minister 
Jackson,  248 ;  disaffection  of, 
249;  New  England  secession, 
278. 

New  Hampshire,  27. 

New  Jersey,  College  of,  4,  8,  9. 16, 
53. 

New  York,  16,  49  ;  debt  of,  to  the 
Union,  94  ;  scheme  to  control. 
163 ;  Bar  Association  of,  pro 
tests  against  reforms  of  Na 
tional  Judiciary,  175. 

Nicholas,  W.  P. ,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  his  resolution  discussed, 
107. 

Nicholson,  of  Ktntucky,  a  Jef 
ferson  leader,  157. 

Nicholson,  Joseph  H.,21;  favors 
impeachment  of  Judge  Chase, 
188;  favors  Louisiana  Pur 
chase,  189  ;  becomes  a  "Quid," 
202;  opposes  Madison,  203. 

Non-importation,  218. 

Northampton,  county  of,  25. 

Northern  Neck  of  Virginia,  9. 

North  Carolina,  13,  14,  16,  18,  19, 
20,  21,  22,  23,  24,  25 ;  history  of, 
31;  term  of  governorship,  34; 
Slate  board  of  War,  35;  and 
Willie  Jones,  36;  demoraliza 
tion  of  State  finances,  37;  State 
commercial  policy,  39;  adopts 
National  constitution,  46-55; 
Bill  of  Rights,  52,  55;  debt  of, 
to  the  Union, 48;  negroslayery 
in,  53,  54  ;  influence  of  Virginia 
on,54  ;  election  of  1796,  68-69; 
representation  in  Congress  in 
creased,  60,  70;  opposes  Mrs. 
Greene's  claim  on  the  Govern 
ment,  63  ;  census  of,  in  1786,  70; 
University  of,  74;  people  of,  op- 
po  e  National  claims  against 
the  St;<te,  94-95;  delegation  of, 
in  Congress,  130;  Alien  and 
Sedition  laws  unpopular  in, 
137-138;  opposes  Virginia  and 
Kentucky  resolutions,  138 ; 
Presidential  electors  of,  161 ; 
Federalist  successes  in,  162; 
North  Carolina  and  Jefferson's 
administration,  177;  impeach 
ment  of  Circuit  Court  Judges 
in,  194;  North  Carolina  and 
the  "Quids,"  208;  delegation 
of, in  the  Tent >j  Congress,  1807- 


1808,  222  ;  in  the  Eleventh,  242  ; 
reaction  towards  Federalism, 
274-275;  vote  of  delegates  on 
war  of  1812,  280;  election  of 
Presidential  electors,282;  Clay's 
programme  of  1818  unpopular 
in,  308;  becomes  a  slave  ex 
porting  State,  314;  repudiates 
Macon's  views,  340;  begin 
nings  of  Whig  party  in,  347; 
petitions  Congress  forC-nsti- 
tutional  amendment,  3571  U. 
S.  bank  unpopular  in,  383;  Con 
vention  of  1835,  387  ;  change  in 
constitution  of,  389;  Whigs 
"carry"  State  and  Congress 
ional  elections  in  August,  1835, 
393;  Gubernatorial  election, 
394 ;  gives  majority  for  Van 
Buren,  396-398. 
Nourse,  Joseph,  48. 

ORANGE, county  of,  17. 

Otis,  Harrison  G.,  M.  C.  from 
Massachusetts,  resolutions  of, 
117,  122,  125,  140  ;  U.  S.  Senator, 
292  :  his  friendship  for  Macon, 
318. 

Oxford,  University  of,  8. 

PAGE,  JOHN,  66. 

Page,  Thomas  J  ,on  Jefferson's 
election  in  1800,  165. 

Paine,  Thomas,  58. 

Papers,  Branch  Historical,  16. 

Parker,  Josiah,  M.  C.from  Vir 
ginia,  80,  81. 

Patriots,  The,  20. 

Patton,  John,  M.  C.  from  Dela- 
warr,  86. 

Pearson,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  242,  275. 

Pennsylvania,  16,  56;  Jefferson's 
popularity  in,  89;  elections  in, 
143;  excitement  in,  over  the 
Jefferson- Burr  contest,  166. 

People,  right  of,  to  instruct  Con 
gressmen,  114. 

Person,  Thomas,  33,  50,  51,  55. 

Petersburg,  2. 

Pettigrew,  Charles,  4,  5,  7. 

Peyton,  Francis,  of  Virginia, 
views  <-f,  on  Jefferson's  elec 
tion  in  1800,  165. 

Philadelphia,  70,  77,  78,  79.  86. 

Pickering,  John,  U.  S.  Circuit 
Judge,  impeached,  184. 

Pickering,  Timothy,  Secretary 
of  State,  131-133  ;  report  of,  on 


INDEX. 


441 


French  relations,  139;  intrigues 
of,  279. 

Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  American 
minister  to  France,  104,  157. 

Pinckney,  William,  U.  S.  Sena 
tor  from  Maryland,  316. 

Pittman,  Thomas  M.,  43. 

Plummer,  Miss  Hannah,  41. 

Potomac  river,  8. 

Porter,  Peter  B.,  M.  C.  from  New 
York,  275. 

Porterfield,  militia  colonel  In 
Revolution,  23,  24,  26. 

Portsmouth,  militia  of,  113-114, 
115. 

Powell,  Leven,  M.  C.  from  Vir 
ginia,  16 ;  on  Jefferson's  elec 
tion  in  1800,  165 

Presbyterians,  9,  53. 

Princeton,  4,  8,  10. 

Prosperity,  return  of,  303. 

Prussia,  14. 

"QUIDS,"  THE,  198-216. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  M.C.  from  Mas 
sachusetts,  speech  of,  on  the 
Embargo  237-238;  New  Eng 
land  leader,  249  ;  dissatisfied 
with  the  Government,  278-279. 

RADICALS,  in  North  Carolina,47. 

Raleigh,  29. 

Raleigh  Register,  a  Republican 
organ,  158-159  ;  supports  John 
Quincey  Adams  in  1828,  366 ; 
becomes  Whig  organ,  381,  390  ; 
tribute  to  Macon,  399, 

Raleigh  Standard,  Democratic 
organ,  392  ;  campaign  work  of, 
894-395  ;  announces  election  re 
turns,  397. 

Raleigh  Star,  a  Jackson  organ, 
382,  391. 

Ram-sour's  Mill,  26. 

Randolph,  John,  M.  C.  from 
Virginia,  144-146:  speech  on 
anti-slavery  petitions,  147 . 
against  the  standing  army, 148; 
opposes  monument  to  Wash 
ington,  153  ;  chairman  of  com 
mittee  on  Ways  and  Means, 
172,  190 ;  manner  of  life,  174 ;  on 
Judiciary  bill,  175 ;  State  su 
premacy,  176;  on  the  Louis 
iana  Purchase,  182, 189  ;  favors 
impeachment  of  Chase,  188, 
189;  leader  of  impeachment 
committee,  194-196;  complains 
of  President  Jefferson,  197;  pre 
fers  Monroe  for  President,  198- 


199;  the  Yazoo  land  frauds, 
exercised  about  Macon 's  re 
election  as  Speaker,  200,  be 
comes  a  "Quid,"  202  ;  opposi 
tion  to  Madison,  203  ;  to  Jeffer 
son,  204  ;  on  Yazoo  land  frauds 
again,  205- 206;  trade,  211;  and 
Thomas  M.  Randolph,  214; 
votes  against  Non-importa 
tion,  222 ;  criticises  Macon,226- 
227 ;  cooperates  with  New  Eng 
land,  234;  wants  to  investigate 
the  affairs  of  Jefferson's  ad 
ministration,  244-245 ;  resolu 
tion  of,  257-258 ;  opposes  war 
of  1812,  276:  makes  overtures 
to  New  England,  304  ;  on  Mis 
souri  controversy,  316;  co- 
founder  of  the  doctrine  of  se 
cession,  326 ;  makes  parade  of 
Macon's  friendship,  359;  his 
political  creed,  360-361;  naming 
of  Randolph-Macon  College, 
377-379. 

Ransom,  James,  3. 

Records,  North  Carolina,  Colo 
nial  and  State,  16,  18. 

Regulars,  Delaware,  24  ;  Mary 
land,  24. 

Regulation,  war  of,  14,  16, 17, 18. 

Regulators,  17,  19,  20. 

Republics,  South  American,  dis 
cussed  in  Congress,  311. 

Republicans,  democratic,  36,  58, 
64,  78  ;  on  Jay  treaty,  86  ;  on  a 
protective  tariff,  96;  weakened, 
105  ;  oppose  war,  109 ;  encour 
aged,  143 ;  "carry"  North  Car 
olina  in  1799,  struggle  of,  in 
North  Carolina  legislature,161; 
supremacy  of,  168  ;  Republican 
machine,  173;  reforms  of,  174- 
175, 177  ;  plan  for  dividing,  178  ; 
oppose  John  Marshall  and  the 
Supreme  Court,  186-J87;  lose 
ground  in  North  Carolina,  242; 
"old"  and  "manufacturing" 
Republicans,  242 ;  "old"  Re 
publicans  lose  control  of  Con 
gress,  274. 

Representatives.NationalHouse 
of,  55,  56,  59 ;  election  of  Jeffer 
son  in,  164-167;  apportionment 
of  its  members,  176. 

Revolution,  American,  17,  19 ; 
influence  of,  on  Europe,  58. 

Revolution  of  1800, 156-167. 

Revolution  in  Congress,  273-277. 

Rhode  Island,  60. 

Richmond,  24. 


442 


INDKX. 


Ritchie,  Thomas,  editor  of  the 
Richmond  Enquirer,  381. 

Roanoke  river,  2. 

Roosevelt,  Nicholas  J.,  95. 

Rowan,  county  of,  17,  18. 

Royalists,  Scotch,  16, 17, 18,  23,  26, 
36,37,47,  52,62. 

Rutledge,  Edward,  157. 

Rutledge,  John,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  nominated  to  Supreme 
Court,  rejected  by  Senate,  157. 

SALISBURY,  15,  23,  24,  28. 

Saratoga,  battle  of,  15,  26. 

Saunders,  Colonel,  W.  L.,  18. 

Savannah,  9,  15,  21,22. 

Sawyer,  Lemuel,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  242;  opposes 
Macon  bill,  No.  1,  252 ;  speech 
of,  on  Clay's  programme,  1818, 
308. 

Schouler  James,  opinion  of 
Macon,  172. 

Scotch,  in  North  Carolina,  19,  20. 

Seawell,  Major  Benjamin,  25-26, 
28,  29. 

Sedgwick,  Theodore,  56,  70, 73,  85, 
97;  interviews  with  President 
Adams,  141,  defeats  Macon, 144. 

Sedition  law,  121-122,  123-126,  150- 

151,  153-154. 

Senate,   U.  S.,  changes  in,  291- 

292;  supports  Monroe  as  against 

Clay,  308-309. 
Sewall,  Samuel,  M.  C.  from  Mas- 

sachuetts,  101. 
ShoccoCreek,2,  3. 
Slaveholders,  46. 
Slavery  question,  60,  191,  212. 
Slocum,  Jesse,  M.  C.  from  North 

Carolina,  308. 
Smallwood,  Colonel  of  militia 

in  the  Revolution,  26. 
Sitgreaves,  Samuel,  M.  C.  from 

Pennsylvania,   98 ;   resolution 

of,  118. 
Smith,   Jeremiah,    M.  C.    from 

New  Hampshire,  98. 
Smith,     Robert,     Secretary     of 

State,  243 ;  defeats  the  Macon 

bill,  256. 
Smith,    William,    M.    C.    from 

South  Carolina,  67. 
Society,  American,  Colonization, 

313-314. 
South,  The,    begins  to  become 

"solid,"  332. 
South  Carolina,   14,  15,  19,  21,  25, 

152,  163,  191. 
Southern  Puritans,  79. 


Southside  of  Roanoke,  2,  38. 

Speight,  Richard  D.,  candidate 
for  Governorship  of  North  Car 
olina,  274. 

Spriggs,  Richard,  M.  C.from  Ma 
ryland,  resolutions  of,  109. 

Stanford,  Richard,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  a  "Quid, "208; 
votes  against  Non-importa 
tion,  222,  223,  275 ;  opposes  war 
of  1812,  276. 

Stanly,  John,  M.  C.  from  North 
Carolina,  181,  242. 

State  rights,  50,  51,  57,  176,  201. 

Steele,  General  John,  63,  64,  66; 
letter  of,  to  Macon,  75-77;  re 
signs,  his  view  of  politics  in 
1800,  184;  opinion  of  the  Mar- 
bury  vs.  Madison  decision, 
184-185. 

Stevens,  militia  general  in  Rev 
olution,  26. 

Stone,  David,  U.  S.  Senator  from 
North  Carolina,  348. 

Stuart,  House  of,  18. 

Sumner,  General  Jethro,  15,  21, 
25,  26,  28. 

Sumpter,  General,  of  South  Car 
olina,  26,  120. 

Supreme  Court, The,  Democratic 
opposition  to,  231. 

TALLEYRAND,  burned  in  effigy, 
128,  131. 

Tarleton,  Colonel,  23. 

Tariff,  American,  49;  protective, 
for  cotton,  66,  67 ;  protective, 
for  manufactures,  246,260,283; 
tariff  "of  abominations,"  346, 
385. 

Tatom,  Absalom,  79. 

Taylor,  John,  of  Caroline  coun 
ty,  Virginia,  book  of,  on  State 
rights,  329. 

Taylor,  John  W.,  M.  C.  from 
New  York,  elected  Speaker  of 
the  House,  325. 

Tennessee,  admission  of,  88. 

Texas,  The  South  and,  356-357. 

Thanksgiving,  day  of,  voted  by 
Congress,  289. 

Thatcher,  George,  M.  C.  from 
Massachusetts, vote  of,for  anti- 
slavery  movement,  147. 

Thomas  J.  B.,  U.  S.  Senator 
from  Illinois,  proposes  Mis 
souri  compromise  plan,  318; 
plan  passes,  323. 

Thompson,  Charles,  48. 

Thompson,  Frank  A.,  374. 


INDEX. 


443 


Thompson,  Smith,  Secretary  of 

the  navy,  306. 

Tories,  23,26,  27,37,  38, 39,  46,  50, 159. 
Trade,  National,  Macon's  view 

of,  39  ;  The  American  carrying, 

118. 
Treaties  :  with  Algiers,  Indians, 

Spain,  86 ;  with  France,  49. 
Troup,  George  M.,  U.  S.  Senator 

from  Georgia,   349;  Governor 

of  Georgia,356;  plans  for  Macon 

to  be  made  Vice-President,  363. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  59. 
Try  on,  county  of,  23. 
Tryon, British  governor  of  North 

Carolina,  17. 
Tucker,  St.  George,  M.  C.  from 

Virginia,  a  partisan  of  Clay, 

307. 
Turner,   James,  U.  S.   Senator 

from  North  Carolina,  294. 

UNION,  THE.National,  40. 

United  States'  frigates:  Consti 
tution,  Constellation,  United 
States,  101. 

University,  National,  267. 

VALLEY  FORGE,  22,  24. 

Van  Allen,  John  E.,  M.  C.  from 
New  York,  122,  124,  128. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  U.  S.  Sena- 
ator  from  New  York,  leads 
fight  against  the  Panama  mis 
sion,  352  ;  on  committees,  358  ; 
candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
391 ;  letter  to  Macon,  392 ;  on 
slavery,  395 ;  elected  President, 
397. 

Van  Cortlandt,  Philip,  M.  C. 
from  New  York,  120. 

Van  Dyke,  Nicholas,  U.  S.  Sen 
ator  from  Delaware,  315. 

Van  Murry,  William,  minister 
to  Holland,  140. 

Varnum,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from' 
Massachusetts,  86,  202  ;  Speak 
er  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  219,  242. 

Venable,  Abraham,  M.  C.  from 
Virginia.93. 

Vermont,  27. 

Virginia,  constitution  of,  a 
model  for  North  Carolina,  38, 
49 :  Virginia  vs.  New  England, 
57;  vote  of,  in  1800,  163;  Vir 
ginia  and  Kentucky  resolu 
tions,  156;  excitement  in,  dur 
ing  Jefferson-Burr  contest,  166; 
becomes  a  slave-breeding  state, 


314;  a  new  party  in,  346-347; 
carried  by  Democrats  in  1835, 
393. 
Volney,  French  scientist,  118. 

WAKE,  COUNTY  OF,  25 ;  Court 
House,  32. 

War  of  1812,  277-291. 

Warren,  county  of,  22,  24,25,  29, 
31,  41,  44. 

Warrenton,  41,  42;  holds  mass 
meeting,  393. 

Washington  and  Lee  Universi 
ty,  93. 

Washington,  George,  10,  11, 
13,  21  25,  40,  49,  50,  55,  74 ;  be 
friends  Hawkins,  77;  opinion 
of  Jay  treaty,  85;  Washington 
and  the  Federalists,  91 ;  Wash 
ington  and  National  Univer 
sity,  93 ;  commander-in-chief, 
129 ;  treatment  of  Doctor  Lo 
gan,  131;  mausoleum  to,  152. 

Webster.  Daniel,  joins  Clay  in 
the  fight  against  Jackson,  383. 

Wheeler,  John  H.,  18,  31,  32. 

Whigs,  19,  21,  23,  34,  36,  47  ;  Whig 
party  in  North  Carolina,  347  ; 
carry  the  State  in  1835,  also 
State  elections  in  1836,  394. 

Whiskey  insurrection,  78. 

White.  Hugh  L.,  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  391. 

White,  Philo,  editor  of  the  Ral 
eigh  Standard,  392. 

Wilkinson,  General  James,  263- 
264, 

William  and  Mary  College,  8,  9. 

Williamson,  Doctor  Hugh,M.C. 
from  North  Carolina,  60,  66. 

Wilmington,  38,  46. 

Winston,  Joseph,  M.  C.  from 
North  Carolina,  votes  agains 
slave  trade,  213. 

Wirt,  William,  204. 

Witherspoon,  Doctor,  9, 10. 

Wyoming  Valley,  57. 

Wythe,  George,  9. 

X  Y  Z  correspondence,  110. 

YADKIN,  RIVER,  26,  28, 30.  32. 

Yancey,  Bartlett,  Judge  of  North 
Carolina  Circuit  Courts,  death 
of,  381. 

Yankees,  winning  the  epithet, 
2L9« 

Yazoo,  The,  land  frauds,  Cabi 
net  decision  on,  197,  205. 

Yorktown,  37. 


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